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GREAT THOUGHTS 


OF 


THE BIBLE 


BY THE 



Rev. JOHN REID, 

Author of “Voices of the Soul Answered in God,” “ Footprints of Sorrow,” 

“Christ and his Religion,’• etc. 





NEW YORK 

WILBUR B. KETCHAM 

2 COOPER UNION 




bTV°' 

ft ^ 


Copyright, 1891, 

BY 

Wilbur B. Ketcham 


PREFACE 


“ The Bible is not such a book as man would have 
made, if he could; or could have made, if he would.” 
Its great thoughts speak to the soul as no thoughts 
of men ever speak. They have a revealing power; 
and the awakened mind perceives divinity in them. 
The Bible is the world’s book, and the world is in the 
book. Its treasures will not fail while the earth en¬ 
dures : even in heaven new riches will be found 
in it. 

As the chief thoughts of the Bible relate to an 
economy of grace, we have made that economy the 
centre. If it be true that u without absolute grasp 
of the whole subject, there is no good painting,” so 
without absolute grasp of the one theme of Scripture, 
there is no sound writing. Rationalism never can 
interpret the Bible. As the great thoughts of God’s 
Book are remarkable for their variety, persons may 
write upon its chief topic and yet all the chapters be 
different in form from ours. We have simply made 



IV 


PREFACE. 


a selection from the mass of Scripture material, and 
have just gone so far into the subject as not to be 
tiresome. The volume could easily be made larger, 
but whether it would fit these busy times any better 
on that account is a question. Compact thought is 
the want of the hour. Windy eloquence strikes the 
ear, but not the soul. Truth comes to us by weight, 
not by measure. 


CONTENTS 


PART I. 

GREAT THOUGHTS OP THE BIBLE WHICH PERTAIN TO 
CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAVIOUR. 

CHAPTER I. 

INDIVIDUALITY OF THE SAVIOUR. 

We know Christ better than those who saw him.—The 
Evangelists by concealing themselves revealed Christ. 

—His individuality not understood unless we view him 
as a divine-human Saviour.—He is related to the whole 
race.—His divinity and humanity held back.—He could 
harmonize God's system.—The certainty of his plan.— 

He was not made by the past.—Christ's humility, 
prayers, and mental pain not just like ours.—His re¬ 
served power.—The strain upon his nature in suffering. 

—The pathetic element. 17 


CHAPTER II. 

SURPRISES OF THE SAVIOUR. 

The time of the incarnation and lowly circumstances of 
his birth are surprises.—So also his action in the tern- 




VI 


CONTENTS. 


pie at the age of twelve.—A surprise that the greater 
part of his life is hidden from us.—That he was bap¬ 
tized.—That he was so careful to attend public worship 
on the Sabbath.—That he unfolded the Gospel so fully 
to Nicodemus and the woman of Samaria.—That he 
selected common men to be apostles.'—That he used 
words of repulse.—That he fed a multitude with so 
little.—That he did not so shape truth that denomina¬ 
tions would not arise.—That he washed his disciples’ 
feet, and instituted a supper to commemorate his 
death.—That the rites of his Church are so few.—That 
he was silent when condemned.—That he saved a pen¬ 
itent robber at the last hour.—That he did not com¬ 
municate with his mother after his resurrection.— 
That he left no writings.—Christ himself the great sur¬ 
prise . 33 


CHAPTER III. 

SOLITUDE OF THE SAVIOUR. 

Solitude from the uniqueness of his being.—Solitude as 
he grew into the realization of his divinity.—Soli¬ 
tude from the uniqueness of his mission.—None could 
enter into his plans.—Received no sympathy.—Was 
opposed.—Shut in upon himself by redemptive respon¬ 
sibility.—Alone in his agony.—Died in solitude. 48 


CHAPTER IV. 

PERFECTION OF THE SAVIOUR. 

The race had not been able to form the ideal of a perfect 
man.—A wrong view of sin and God in the way.—The 
best ideal is an abstraction.—Christ is the ideal made 




CONTENTS. 


real.—Showed perfection in painful circumstances.— 

Did he have the feeling of contempt?—'His strength 
under temptation.—His character had depth and com¬ 
pass.—The more we see of the best men the more we 
see of their infirmities, but the more we see of Christ 
the more we see of his goodness.—Even wicked men 
find a degree of pleasure in picturing the Saviour.— 

The aroma of his life is still with us. 61 


CHAPTER V. 

BEAUTY OF THE SAVIOUR’S CHARACTER. 

Cannot tell whether Christ’s physical nature was beauti¬ 
ful.—The collective beauty of the creation summed up 
in him.—I. Beauty of the Saviour’s life from its form. 

—H. Beauty of the Saviour’s life from its simplicity.— 

III. Beauty of the Saviour’s life from its harmony.— 

IV. Beauty of the Saviour’s life from its manifoldness 
ending in unity.—V. Beauty of the Saviour’s life from 

its repose. 75 


CHAPTER VI. 

SUGGESTIVE POWER OF THE SAVIOUR’S PERSONALITY. 

Christ does not affect all alike.—If we put ourselves in a 
line with him we have a new consciousness.—How 
Peter at one time was affected by the Saviour.—Christ 
in the imagination.—Suggestiveness of the medical 
side of his life.—His miracles allegories of salvation. 

—How he awakens in us unbounded aspirations, and 
makes us to face the indefinite and mysterious.—Leads 
us to feel the vanity of mere human endeavor, and value 
of the permanent. 87 





CONTENTS. 


viii 


PART II. 

GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE WHICH PERTAIN TO 
CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF SALVATION. 

CHAPTER I. 

A GROUP OF GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

As introductory see order in the Pentateuch. God the 
first great thought of the Old Testament.—The second 
great thought is the striking nature and outwardness 
of the divine government as exercised over the Jewish 
people.—The third great thought is redemption.—The 
fourth great thought is purity.—The fifth great thought 
is the psalter. 103 


CHAPTER II. 

CERTAIN GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

I. Marked significance of the New Testament view of 
God: 1. God is three and yet one.—2. God is love.—3. 

God is a Father.—II. Marked significance of the New 
Testament view of salvation.—III. Marked significance 
of Christ’s resurrection.—IV. Marked significance of 
the fact that Biblical theology is practical.118 

CHAPTER III. 

EFFICACY OF CERTAIN HUMAN REMEDIES FOR SIN CONTRASTED 
WITH THE EFFICACY OF THE GREAT SALVATION. 

We are told that men can be made perfect by education. 

—By Aesthetic discipline. —By free government. —By 




CONTENTS. 


IX 


the moral law.—No man can make the darkened mind 
to see God, the depraved heart to love God, the unwill¬ 
ing will to obey God.—Unless a supernatural influence 
is brought to bear upon the fallen soul it is doomed... 135 


CHAPTER IV. 

CERTITUDE OF THAT RELIGION WHICH SPRINGS FROM THE 
GREAT SALVATION. 

1. There is a feeling of need.—2. Repentance.—3. Faith. 

—4. Love.—5. Obedience.—Nothing arbitrary about 
these.—No man can be restored to the image of God 
unless he has these characteristics.—Pure religion is 
as old as the creation.—Can only be one true religion. 

—Religion a fact as seen in the experience of millions. 

—The earth would be heaven if Christ’s religion were 
acted out.—Christianity solves the problem of life.—It 
has given to the nations one God, the Bible, the Sab¬ 
bath, immortality, the resurrection of the dead, a higher 
moral life, and a true view of the great system of 
things. 150 


CHAPTER V. 

GREAT INDIGNATION. 

Indignation not revenge or high temper.—Must hate evil. 

—Indignation of God, of the prophets, of the impreca¬ 
tory psalms, and of Christ.—Indignation hindered by 
the strong craving for quietness, by false love, and fear 
of .man.—Indignation should arise against the fraudu¬ 
lent, the judge and advocate who are untrue, the 
representative who inculcates false principles, the 
minister who preaches error, the gambler, and the 
liquor dealer.—Indignation is at the bottom of all great 
reforms and revivals. 166 




X 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER VI. 

GREAT PRINCIPLES. 

I. The habitual practice of one sin makes holiness impos¬ 
sible.—II. Moral action must begin with God.—III. 
Great opposition, then great success.—IV. “He that is 
faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much.” 

—V. If I perform a good act I gain double power, and 
if I perform an evil act I lose double power.—VI. 

“ Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do 
ye even so to them.”. 180 

CHAPTER VII. 

GREATNESS OP THE HUMAN SOUL. 

Greatness of the soul because made in the image of God. 

—A blind movement towards the Divine.—Extent of 
human workmanship.—The soul intrusted with its own 
eternal interests.—The mind greater than its conscious 
experience.—Power of habit.—Greatness even in sin. 

—All men want to be well thought of.—Unrest points 
to greatness.—Sentiment of the infinite.—Greatness of 
the soul from greatness of salvation.—Grandeur of 
human nature when acting under the power of the 
Spirit.—Cherubim as symbolizing the exalted state of 
the redeemed. 197 


PART III. 

GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE WHICH PERTAIN TO 
CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAVED. 


Preliminary Statements 


217 






CONTENTS. 


XI 


CHAPTER I. 

THE SAVED ARE BLESSED WITH THE VISION OF THE TRIUNE 

GOD. 

I. Vision of God in the unity of his being: God a delight¬ 
ful presence.—God the absolute ideal.—God the perfec¬ 
tion of beauty.—Do the saints behold the divine 
essence?—II. Vision of God through the medium of 
the God-man : The Son of God central in divine nature 
and divine system.—The incarnation not merely a 
means with reference to redemption.—The God-man 
has a universal significance.—He is the end as well as 
the medium of divine manifestation.—III. Vision of 
God made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.— 

The work of the Spirit is eternal.—It is that of com¬ 
pleting.—The Saviour on earth filled with the Spirit, 
so the saints in heaven.—Vision of God and trinity go 
together. 224 


CHAPTER II. 

THE SAVED ARE BLESSED WITH SINLESS CHARACTER. 

I. Sinless character the prefection of order.—II. Sinless 
character the perfection of life.—III. Sinless character 
the perfection of loveliness.—IV. Sinless character the 
perfection of security.—V. Sinless character the per¬ 
fection of heaven. 241 


CHAPTER III. 

THE SAVED ARE BLESSED WITH GREAT POWER. 

The soul quickened the instant it enters eternity.—Power 
increased by the inflow of divine energy.—Power from 
heavenly environment.—From sight instead of faith.— 
From a new language.—From personal purity.—From 




CONTENTS. 


xii 

finished ideals.—From perfect memory.—From intel¬ 
lectual life.—From heavenly corporeity.—The phono¬ 
graphic and photographic as they bear on the subject.— 
Strong principle needed to control the power.. . 254 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE SAVED ARE BLESSED WITH CAPABILITIES OF ENDLESS PRO¬ 
GRESS. 

Holiness will not be more pure, but more large.—All 
virtues will find a field of action.—There may be action 
that is extraordinary.—The form of the possessory prin¬ 
ciple in heaven.—Progress will be trinal.—Inferior 
minds will need schooling.—Will be worlds that unfold 
new phases of the divine nature.—Creation studied as 
a manifestation of God.—Time will come when creation 
will be fully known.—The material system will end.— 
Destruction.—A new material system will be needed.— 
Universal providence and universal history a study. 

—Our collective knowledge and goodness will be the 
measure of our conception of God. 268 

CHAPTER V. 

THE SAVED ARE BLESSED WITH THE COMPANY OF NOBLE 
BEINGS. 

Must not press the relations of life too far.—Shall we 
know persons in heaven whom we did not know here? 

—Shall we instantly recognize friends?—Will infants 
and certain men have marks which suggest who they 
are?—Do the spirits of the departed return to the 
earth?—Do spirits in heaven know what is transpiring 
on the earth ?—Angelic ministry.—Oneness of all heav¬ 
enly beings a ground of fellowship.—Angels can learn 
from saints.—The question examined whether redeemed 
men will be higher than angels. 282 





CONTENTS. 


xiii 


CHAPTER VI. 

THE SAVED ARE BLESSED WITH PURE JOT. 

I. Joy from the absence of pain.—II. Joy from the ongo¬ 
ing of life.—III. Joy from harmony.—IV. Joy from the 
new and the true.—V. Joy from objects that suggest a 
train of fine thoughts.—VI. Joy from heaven viewed 
as a gift.—VII. Joy from worship rendered to the 
triune God... 299 




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PART I. 

GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE WHICH PERTAIN TO 
CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAVIOUR. 


We wish to look chiefly at the inward excellencies of the 
Saviour in the chapters that follow. In the lives of 
Christ that have appeared there is an excess of that 
which is outward; even the manners, customs, and the 
country itself, of the Jewish people have been sketched. 
All this is valuable, only that the heart of the Great 
Heart has not been sufficiently noticed. 



CHAPTER I. 


INDIVIDUALITY OF THE SAVIOUR. 

Revolutions that startle men by their sud¬ 
denness had preparations in human souls. 
All great events have their preludes. Before 
the sun is seen in the morning he is heralded. 
It is no less true, however, that the grandest 
thoughts come forth from a divine darkness. 
Mystery fringes the most exalted truths. That 
which can be seen at a glance is only the step¬ 
ping-stone to something higher. 

Although the idea of Christ comes from 
Christ, it seems none the less to lie at the 
foundation of the deepest thinking. Whether 
one treats of the philosophy of history, or of 
philosophy itself, Christ is there. He may not 
always be there in his true nature; still he is 
there. He is the Wonderful Presence adored 
by some, rejected by others, praised by all. 
Those who do not want him think of him; 
his radiance skirts their darkness, and his voice 
echoes on the ear as the storm sweeps by. 

In the most complete sense, Jesus was a con- 


18 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


secrated person. His whole being and life 
were set apart to an unwonted service. He 
seemed not to belong to himself, and yet no 
one was so much himself as he was. He 
worked always from his own nature. He was 
literally Christocentric. 

Thousands of men seem to be cast in the 
same mould, their individuality destroyed by 
a dominant materialism. In certain organiza¬ 
tions the masses are swayed by some potent 
chief. We even notice a kind of education 
and a kind of religion that are shaped by a su¬ 
preme human authority. On the other hand, 
there are souls that will neither submit to man, 
nor to Gfod. It is a fair question whether there 
is a single one of our fallen race that possesses 
a true individuality. In Christ we behold an 
individuality that has stood its ground against 
all opposing influences. 

The apostles had a more complete knowledge 
of the Saviour after he had left them than 
when he was with them. We behold him bet¬ 
ter at this distance of time than those who saw 
him day by day. They were in the midst of 
a process, and could not understand it: we see 
the process as ended, and therefore all is clear. 
We have also the additional light of the entire 
New Testament and the additional evidence 
from Christianity during eighteen centuries, 


INDIVIDUALITY OF THE SAVIOUR. 


19 


and consequently we must have a better 
knowledge of Christ than the men who saw 
his miracles and heard his words. 

The Evangelists have been able to do a diffi¬ 
cult piece of work. They have made the in¬ 
dividuality of Christ distinct by forcing into 
the background their own individuality. They 
manifest no self-consciousness in the act of 
writing, but they do show a clear conscious¬ 
ness of the Saviour. They do not charm us 
with their opinions of Christ: facts are allowed 
to tell what he is. They seem to be under a 
law of limitation, guided and governed by the 
Spirit of Giod, that thus they may truthfully 
reveal the Redeemer of men. The fewness of 
their words, the simplicity of their style, and 
their singleness of aim give us the photograph 
of Jesus for all coming time. 

Unless we grasp the true idea of the indi¬ 
viduality of Christ at the beginning, his mis¬ 
sion upon earth will not be understood. His 
individuality is altogether peculiar. He is a 
divine-human person. “ The Word was made 
flesh, and dwelt among us.” He was not a 
human body animated by the Deity, neither 
was he a real man filled with Giod, but “ he was 
Giod and man in two distinct natures, and yet 
one person forever.” Men can reach a high 
standing by reason of supernatural aid granted 


20 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


to thorn, but their standing never can be the 
same as that of the Grod-man. However much 
also we may emphasize the humanity of Christ, 
there will still be something about that hu¬ 
manity that is not found in the highest saint 
on earth or in heaven. The fault of most of 
the lives of Christ that have been written is in 
making his humanity so intensely human that 
the divinity seems not to touch it. 

While the incarnation gives us the basis of 
the individuality of Christ, another character¬ 
istic is needed in order to complete that indi¬ 
viduality. Why did the Son of Grod assume 
human nature? The only reason that har¬ 
monizes with Scripture is the one, that he 
assumed human nature for the purpose of 
saving lost men. “ Christ hath redeemed us 
from the curse of the law, being made a curse 
for us.” “Behold the Lamb of Glod which 
taketh away the sin of the world.” Thus the 
individuality of Christ is revealed to us in the 
statement, that he is the divine-human Sav¬ 
iour. 

“ I have sometimes remarked in the presence 
of great works of art,” says Mr. Emerson, “ how 
much a certain property contributed to the 
effect which gives life to the figures, and to 
the life an irresistible truth. This property is 
the hitting, in all the figures we draw, the right 


INDIVIDUALITY OF THE SAVIOUR. 


21 


centre of gravity. I mean, the placing the 
figures firm upon their feet; making the hands 
grasp, and fastening the eyes on the spot where 
they should look.” # The cross is the centre 
of gravity for the God-man. Christ is redemp¬ 
tion. He has an experience which connects 
itself with every human being from first to 
last. There is not even one soul that is outside 
of his experience. The race has an existence 
because the Saviour has an existence. The 
truth which he announced, the religion which 
he propagated, and the model of righteousness 
which he exhibited, are for the whole world of 
man. Not even the highest creaturely intelli¬ 
gence has any such experience as Christ. His 
individuality overshadows and underlies all 
other individuals. We are bounded in our 
experience. Christ has a universal conscious¬ 
ness, a universal personality, a universal life. 
At the very point where he seems to come 
nearest to us, he is yet far away; he is near 
and remote at the same time. The common 
in Christ is uncommon. When we imagine 
that we behold a train of excellencies quite 
well defined, the train branches off into vast¬ 
ness, and we cannot measure it. The stream 
of glory becomes a lake, the lake an ocean, 
whose shore we cannot see and whose depth 

* “Essays,” First Series, p. 208. 


22 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


we cannot sound. It will be true forever that 
Christ is known, and yet unknown. 

We are accustomed to say that the effulgence 
of the Diety was softened by the incarnation. 
We may even take another step and affirm 
that both the human and the divine in Christ 
were held back to a certain extent, lest they 
should overwhelm men by their power. The 
glory of the Saviour in heaven is different 
from the glory of the Saviour on earth. It 
was not suitable to him, in his state of humilia¬ 
tion, that he should be encircled with that 
splendor which now encircles him in his state 
of exaltation. Once he gave full play to his 
complex being on the Mount of Transfigura¬ 
tion, and there flashed forth from him a light 
like that of the sun. This was a celestial glory 
which appeared for an hour, and then was lost 
in darkness. The cloud of glory and the voice 
of Grod sounding through it were so overpower¬ 
ing that the disciples “ fell on their face, and 
were sore afraid.” This was a divine mani¬ 
festation in order to meet a purpose, and could 
not be repeated. 

There was much in the life of Christ which 
resembled that of other men, and he might 
easily be lost sight- of by thoughtless minds. 
He ate and drank, slept and dressed, was weary 
and hungry, like others. He spoke the com- 


INDIVIDUALITY OP THE SAVIOUR. 


23 


mon language of the people, worked at a trade 
for years, worshipped in the synagogue, and 
went to the temple during the great festivals, 
just as other Jews did. He did not assume 
the garb of a great philosopher. He did not 
teach men science and art. He made no spe¬ 
cial discovery in the realms of nature. The 
fact that his own brethren did not believe on 
him showed that there was a section of his life 
that was quite human. Even his goodness 
many a time flowed in a channel that would 
not attract earthly souls. It wanted a spiritual 
eye to see him, and that the people did not 
have. 

The Redeemer is the only person who could 
completely harmonize the apparent contradic¬ 
tions of the government of God. A child sees 
much in a father that is perplexing, and a 
common soldier cannot grasp the plan of a 
great campaign. Upon the broad scale of 
eternity the most cultivated human being is 
but a child. Christ did not live upon the same 
plane that men live upon when they are look¬ 
ing at the intricacies of existence. He was on 
the mountain summit, and the field of vision 
was spread out before him; while man is at 
the bottom of the mountain and sees only a 
part, and is therefore confused. An infinite 
person, the trinity, creation out of nothing, the 


24 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


problem of evil, never perplexed him. The 
contradictions of Scripture did not enter his 
mind. He found no need of theories. Indeed, 
it is worthy of notice that not a single hy¬ 
pothesis was ever proposed by Christ. His 
wisdom did not reveal itself in guessing. He 
faced the reality, and however tangled and 
twisted that might be to us, he found unity. 
Many a time he throws out great generalized 
statements which astonish us by their sweep, 
and which to this day we cannot fully explain, 
but to him they were clear as the light. He 
looks at events and at souls, at God and God’s 
plan, at time and eternity, as no man does. 
His life was burdensome, painful, right in the 
midst of death, yet there is no evidence that 
he was hindered or harassed by the irreconcil¬ 
able and mysterious. 

When men start upon a new and great un¬ 
dertaking they have to feel their way, not 
being sure how things will turn out. They 
change now and then in order to meet the cir¬ 
cumstances, and even fail when doing their 
best. If they should succeed, the success is 
not just as they expected at first. We find 
nothing like this in Christ. He had one great 
thought, and that one great thought was never 
changed. He went straight forward, when to 
the eyes of men it seemed as if he must be 


INDIVIDUALITY OP THE SAVIOUR. 


25 


mistaken. Peter at one time began to rebuke 
him, because certain revelations touching the 
future did not seem to Peter’s mind to be suit¬ 
able to such a person as Christ. It is safe to 
say that if the Saviour had unfolded his plan 
to the apostles at the beginning, they would 
have been completely overwhelmed, and would 
have thought that he was rash and unreason¬ 
able. They saw it little by little; then at last 
its meaning flashed upon them. Men who 
have before them a great undertaking are more 
or less anxious. They think carefully and 
consult with persons of experience about it. 
“ Christ speaks as one who is sure of the com¬ 
pactness of his design; he is certain that no 
human obstacle can baulk its realization. He 
produces it simply without effort, without re¬ 
serve, without exaggeration; he is calm, be¬ 
cause he is in possession of the future, and 
sees his way clearly through its tangled 
maze. There is no proof, no distant inti¬ 
mation of a change or of a modification of 
his plan.” * 

We are to a great extent made by the past: 
Christ was an original character. To suppose 
that he was the ripe fruit of all previous de¬ 
velopment is assuredly a fancy and not a fact. 
It was not possible for the greatness of uni- 

* Liddon, “The Divinity of Christ,” p. 115. English ed. 


26 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


versal man to end in him, because his great¬ 
ness was of a kind that never had been seen 
before, and never would be seen again. His 
person and plan, character and kingdom, were 
all new. No legislator, hero, monarch, phi¬ 
losopher, or founder of a religion, ever struck 
upon his thought. “ How was it possible for 
a man who embraced all the nations of the 
earth in the greatest love, and projected one 
of the most benevolent plans that ever sprung 
from a human mind, to derive his origin from 
a nation which despised all other nations, made 
hatred to them a religious duty, and considered 
it criminal to approach them or form connec¬ 
tions with them ? Here everything is new and 
incomprehensible; everything governed by 
strange laws. External circumstances and 
relations are constantly at variance with the 
disposition and feelings of Jesus, and produce 
in him effects directly the opposite to what 
they usually do in other cases. Under such 
circumstances, no human mind has ever de¬ 
veloped such qualities. If God was not in this 
man , it is not easy to see how he became what 
he was; how he could possibly have acquired 
that heavenly dignity, greatness, and eleva¬ 
tion, with which he stands forth unequalled 
and alone in the vast space of history, far sur¬ 
passing in splendor all that is”worthy of ad- 


INDIVIDUALITY OF THE SAVIOUR. 


27 


miration upon earth.” * Most certainly Christ 
came from the higher worlds, and was not in 
the line of our march. Although in certain 
things he seemed to be one of our number, he 
was yet in his chief characteristics out of our 
range. The Maker of the world was not made 
by the world. He came here with treasures 
which the earth needed, but received nothing 
in return. Yea, for his gifts he was crucified. 
He descended, but it was to lift up. Christ’s 
descending was ascending. 

Humility was not just the same in Jesus as 
it is in us. The grace which goes by that 
name is in a great measure the feeling of beings 
who have sinned. The penitent man sinks 
because he has broken the divine law, because 
he feels unworthy, and because he is nothing 
and can claim nothing. Christ had no feeling 
of unworthiness, but he did have a high sense 
of worth. He never appeared small in his own 
eyes, as we appear small in ours. In what 
sense was he humble ? When he stooped from 
the highest condition to the lowest by reason 
of pure love, that was his kind of humility. 
He had greatness, but he, so to speak, reduced 
himself in order to meet man, that man might 
rise from his littleness to be a partaker of the 
greatness of Glod. The opposite of pride with 

* Reinhard’s “ Plan of the Founder of Christianity,” p. 271. 


28 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


us is humility, but the opposite of humility 
with Christ was greatness. Though sinless 
and divine, he was willing to be viewed as 
wicked, and in that way he manifested humil¬ 
ity. We miss it exceedingly unless we view 
the humility of Christ as having a redemptive 
meaning. 

The prayers of Jesus are in many respects 
different from ours. Indeed, considering that 
he was the one Being who could save men, we 
are somewhat surprised that he should pray 
at all; and if he had never prayed, we should 
have seen nothing out of the way. There is 
no account that he prayed with people at 
prayer meetings as we pray with each other. 
It is mentioned that he gave thanks in connec¬ 
tion with food and when the sacrament of the 
Supper was instituted. “ The Lord’s Prayer ” 
was used by his disciples, but never used by 
the Lord himself. Indeed, he could not use it, 
as he was sinless. There was a degree of re¬ 
tirement about the praying of Jesus. The 
night seemed the most suitable time. Away 
from the labors of the day and the presence 
of men, he could commune with the eternal 
Father. That wonderful prayer in the seven¬ 
teenth chapter of John is to a great extent 
mediatorial. No human being could say, u I 
have finished the work which thou gavest me 


INDIVIDUALITY OF THE SAVIOUR. 


29 


to do. And now, 0 Father, glorify thou me 
with thine own self with the glory which I had 
with thee before the world was.” Our great 
Advocate did intercede for men, and in that 
particular his praying is like ours. He also 
prayed in the midst of intense pain, just as we 
do when suffering. While it is important to 
know how much Christ is like us, it is no less 
important to know how much he is unlike us. 

The mental jpain of Jesus was not the same 
as ours. The fact that he was sinless, and 
man is sinful, shows that the pain could not 
be the same in each. Man feels restless and 
dissatisfied, is troubled with guilt and remorse, 
looks to Grod and the future with fear, has the 
sense of a burden upon the heart and a feeling 
of disharmony, is tired without any toil and 
heart-sick in the midst of pleasure: Christ 
had no such experiences. His mental pain was 
foreign to him, the causes of it were outward, 
while our pain is from within. His sorrow 
and suffering were exceedingly sharp; all the 
sharper because he was holy. The agony was 
too great to be prolonged; the redemption 
price was so valuable that it enriched eternity. 
The word that expresses our mental pain is 
unhappiness . Christ suffered, but was that 
suffering of the same quality as unhappiness f 
We think not. 


30 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


Mark now the fact of reserved poiver in the 
man Christ Jesus. He never goes to such a 
pitch in effort as to exhaust the contents of his 
soul, finding it necessary to replenish his mind 
by a season of solitary study. His whole 
career was extraordinary, and yet it was such 
without any ado. He was great without try¬ 
ing to be great. There was a certain quietness 
about his efforts, an air of repose that spread 
over him in the midst of his mightiest deeds, 
and so he flourished without any intellectual 
strain, no nervous impetuosity sending him 
ahead at the expense of vital force. The 
wealth of his nature flowed from him as the 
stream from its fountain, the rays from its 
sun, the creation from its Glod. To lay out 
one’s powers for a great occasion is a sign of 
weakness. It shows that we have not at in¬ 
stant command just what we need. We have 
to collect our treasures and press them into 
one great hour; that one great hour measuring 
our ability at its highest pitch, while back of 
it is want and hunger. Nothing of this kind 
is seen in Christ. 

Still, when we face the fact of redemptive 
suffering, the human nature of Jesus seemed 
pressed and strained as if it was compelled to 
bear the utmost that was possible. Sin is such 
a fearful evil that it demanded an expiation 


INDIVIDUALITY OF THE SAVIOUR. 


31 


which must rack mind and body. The words, 
“ If it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” 
show that he well-nigh reached the limit of 
human endurance. How much of reserved 
power there was in the soul of Jesus during 
his great agony we do not know. We only 
know that he conquered. Terrible would it 
have been for us if he had not conquered. If 
the divine in Christ had not been all around 
his human nature, bearing it up, it would seem 
as if that human nature must have given way. 

There was a pathetic element which char¬ 
acterized the individuality of the Saviour. 
The beginning, middle, and end of his earthly 
career were suffused with pathos. His looks, 
speech, works, and prayers to God were pa¬ 
thetic. His very silence, his glance toward 
the heavens, his sigh that travelled through 
the darkness into the eternal light, his sorrow 
that sprung from love rather than from loss, 
were all touched with pathos. His farewell to 
his disciples, his agony in the garden, his man¬ 
ner before the elders and before Pilate, the 
crucifixion scene, were each pathetic. Apart, 
however, from the many instances of pathos 
that appear in his life, his very being was the 
most pathetic of all. His entire nature was a 
passion of suffering goodness. He carried the 
burdens of mankind. It is because of the 


32 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


pathos which stamps his individuality that he 
has such a spiritual hold upon the race. The 
Christ of rationalism is cold in presence of the 
emotions. That which comes nearest to the 
heart is the most precious and lives the long¬ 
est. Christianity will always live , just because 
the Son of Grod died . 


CHAPTER II. 


SURPRISES OF THE SAVIOUR. 

Christ is many sided, and so he must be 
studied in a many-sided way in order to dis¬ 
cover the wealth of his nature and character. 

The time when God became man is a sur¬ 
prise. Why wait four thousand years before 
assuming human nature? As redemption 
held back the curse when Adam sinned, why 
might not the second Adam have appeared 
during the first age of the world? The race 
were to be schooled, and prophecy and provi¬ 
dence were to do their part before “ the fulness 
of time ” came. When the incarnation should 
be, or whether there should be any incarna¬ 
tion at all, we cannot tell. The whole matter 
is a surprise. 

It is a marvel that the Son of God became 
the Son of man in a stable. Even admitting 
that humiliation was to mark his life, we should 
have supposed that finer surroundings would 
have saluted the King of Glory when he came 
here. At the time the wise men visited him 


34 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


he was still in lowly circumstances. They 
must have been surprised to find the new-born 
king without the least vestige of royalty. The 
thought might have entered their mind that 
they had been deceived, and that their long 
journey was fruitless. If they were thus 
tempted, they stood the test; for they pre¬ 
sented their gifts to the infant sovereign and 
worshipped him. They may have been the 
first fruits of the Grentiles to Christ. 

Jesus in the temple, at the age of twelve, 
provoked surprise. The doctors are aston¬ 
ished at his understanding and answers. Jo¬ 
seph and Mary are equally astonished when 
they hear him say, “ Wist ye not that I must 
be about my Father’s business 1 ” It has been 
noticed that these are the first recorded words 
spoken by Jesus. He had struck off: the great 
thought of his life with just sufficient indefi¬ 
niteness to make them think and wonder. 
The sentence was suitable to the point of de¬ 
velopment which Jesus had reached. It opened 
a divine chamber from which glory streamed, 
and then it was closed till years passed. 

It is remarkable that the greater part of 
Christ’s life is hidden from us. There is a 
blank from infancy to the age of twelve, and 
from twelve to the age of thirty. It is no 
doubt better for us that we should not be fully 


SURPRISES OF THE SAVIOUR. 35 

acquainted with every item of the Saviour’s 
experience. The unknown may teach us wis¬ 
dom. The curious mind may he frivolous. 
A suitable distance from the Divine develops 
a finer reverence than an unsuitable nearness 
to the Divine. 

Considering that Christ was sinless, it is 
strange that he presented himself to be bap¬ 
tized. John, indeed, felt that there was a de¬ 
gree of incongruity about it, for he remarked, 
“ I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest 
thou to me! ” The Son of God had assumed 
the duties that were obligatory upon man. 
Persons affirm that it makes no difference 
whether they are baptized or not, as the rite 
is merely secondary. It is certainly better for 
a man to be a follower of Christ than a follower 
of himself. “ A soul,” says Fenelon, “ which 
sincerely desires to belong to God never looks 
to see whether a thing is great or small; it is 
enough for it to know that he for whose love 
it is done is infinitely great, and that it is his 
due to have all creation solely devoted to his 
glory.” # 

It may surprise easy-going people that 
Christ was so constant in his attendance upon 
the worship of the synagogue. Since he was 
holy, might he not have rested at home ? No: 


* “ Selections, ” p. 17. 


36 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


the positive institutions of God must be sus¬ 
tained ; he must fulfil all righteousness. u He 
went therefore into the synagogue on the Sab¬ 
bath day, as his custom was.” The synagogue 
was essentially the church of the Jews, and the 
Christian Church is modelled after it. If the 
Saviour of men felt under obligation to sustain 
public worship, much more should the men 
who expect to be saved be held to duty by a 
similar obligation. 

The fulness of saving truth which comes 
forth in Christ’s conversation with Nicodemus 
is surprising. Men of rationalistic tendency 
have praised the Sermon on the Mount because 
they did not find in it atoning characteristics; 
and yet, in the interview with the Jewish ruler 
which took place before the Sermon on the 
Mount was delivered, redemptive truth is 
unfolded with marked distinctness. Indeed, 
there is scarcely a chapter in the whole of the 
New Testament that is so suitable to read to 
a man who feels the need of salvation as the 
third chapter of John’s Gospel. The necessity 
of a change of character effected by the Spirit 
of God and the equal necessity of faith in the 
Divine Redeemer are unfolded in clear lan¬ 
guage. Christ did more for the timid man who 
came to him by night, than he did for many 
who surrounded him in open day. There is a 


SURPRISES OF THE SAVIOUR. 


37 


law of progress in the unfolding of Christian 
doctrine; but the Great Teacher seemed to 
step aside from his usual course when he com¬ 
municated to Nicodemus such a full revelation 
of the way to be saved. 

The conversation of Jesus with the woman 
of Samaria has phases which surprise us. 
“ The disciples marvelled that he talked with 
the woman.” He revealed to her the past of 
her life, stated that he is the Messiah, and the 
founder of a religion for all mankind. She 
believes every word, and hastens to inform 
her neighbors, saying, “ Come, see a man which 
told me all things that ever I did: is not this 
the Christ!” The people are startled, and 
they hurry forward to see the noted person. 
They listen to his statements, they believe, 
and confess “ that this is indeed the Christ, the 
Saviour of the world.” Not only is it strange 
that he should talk so freely to the Samaritan 
woman and her friends, considering that his 
plan was to confine his chief attention to the 
Jews, but it is doubly strange that he favored 
such people with a fuller knowledge of his 
person and work than he was accustomed to 
give to others. To know that he is “ the 
Saviour of the world ” is a truth that many did 
not grasp till after years of schooling. 

That Jesus should select common men for 


38 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


his apostles, and not the educated, is of the 
nature of a surprise. That eleven of those 
should be from the north, and only one from 
the south, namely, Judas, is also strange. 
Then why was Judas chosen at all ? No satis¬ 
factory answer can be given. Perhaps his 
seeming readiness to do and to suffer gave 
him a standing, and so he was allowed to come 
in among the apostles. Sometimes persons 
unite with the church whose experience we are 
not quite sure about; but we give them the 
benefit of a doubt, and so receive them. Per¬ 
haps Judas entered the ranks of the apostles 
by a kind of choice that trembled. The apos¬ 
tles were typical of the Church of Glod, having 
the temperaments and spiritual characteristics 
of church members. Paul afterwards took the 
place of Judas, as if to make the apostolic 
college a better picture of the Church of the 
future. 

Repulse is seen at different times in the life 
of Christ, and that surprises. A scribe wants 
to follow him. Jesus says plainly, “ The foxes 
have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; 
but the Son of man hath not where to lay his 
head.” Such a statement was not encourag¬ 
ing. A man wants to attend to the filial duty 
of burying his father before he casts in his lot 
with the Saviour. The words are uttered, 


SURPRISES OF THE SAVIOUR. 


39 


“ Let the dead bury their dead.” A rich youth 
wants to know what he shall do to inherit 
eternal life. He is told to go and sell all that 
he has and give to the poor. A Syro-Phenician 
woman pleads in behalf of her daughter. The 
Saviour answers her not a word. She repeats 
her request, and is again rejected. She will 
not, however, give up. The blessing is at last 
received, and the woman is praised. Repulse 
is a characteristic of the present system. It is 
seen in nature with its severity, in providence 
with its trials, in business with its fluctuations, 
in education with its discipline, in religion 
with its crosses. Many a one meets a rebuff 
at the very beginning of the Christian life. 
He who is earnest and persevering will come 
off conqueror. Repulse is designed to make 
us considerate, thorough, strong. The winter 
of time prepares for the summer of eternity. 

The feeding of five thousand people with 
five loaves and two fishes is a surprise. The 
vast number of persons were not merely spec¬ 
tators of what was done; they were subjects 
of the miracle. They could speak, therefore, 
from experience. No attempt was made by 
the enemies of Christ to deny his miracles. 
Surprise is heightened in that he performed 
no miracles in his own behalf. Then, too, his 
miracles were generally acts of mercy, and not 


40 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


mere acts of power in nature. If a forger had 
played a part in working up the Gospel history, 
he would have had signs and wonders in the 
heavens to suit wonder-loving people. 

It may he a matter of surprise to some that 
Christ did not so arrange truth as to keep men 
from forming different denominations. What 
a power there would have been in one visible 
church, all of whose members thought and felt 
alike! Simply by the introduction of a few 
sentences he might have made all plain. Sup¬ 
pose even that Christ had stated that the apos¬ 
tles were to have no successors, and that bap¬ 
tism and regeneration do not necessarily go 
together, what a difference that would have 
made in the development of the Christian re¬ 
ligion ! The plan evidently was to leave us 
to the sharp discipline of thought. It might 
seem to be a help to the men of unbelief if 
the evidence for Christianity had been made 
clearer; but as the evidence is sufficient, 
though not overpowering, it will make them 
stronger if they fall in with it. It is not by 
cavilling that we enter the kingdom of truth. 

The words of Jesus at different times created 
surprise. “ The people were astonished at his 
doctrine; for he taught them as one having 
authority, and not as the scribes.” There was 
a commanding power about the teaching of 


SURPRISES OP THE SAVIOUR. 


41 


Christ which impressed men. In the syna¬ 
gogue at Nazareth “ all wondered at the gra¬ 
cious words which proceeded out of his mouth.” 
He was in a world-wide sense the manifestation 
of God’s mercy to men. The gracious words 
pointed to the gracious person. When the 
officers were sent to arrest Jesus they returned, 
saying, “Never, man spake like this man.” 
Instead of taking him, he took them. Christ 
had the wonderful ability to find men. He 
went straight into souls. The outward was of 
little use to him. He lived in the region of 
mind, and spoke to mind as if no body covered 
it. “He needed not that any should testify 
of man; for he kneiv what was in man.” His 
searching truth troubled men. His light was 
too clear for diseased eyes; his purity too pure 
for depraved hearts. Perdition is eased the 
farther it is from paradise. 

That Christ should wash his disciples’ feet 
was an act that no one would have expected. 
They were thinking about being great: he 
would teach them that lowly service performed 
with love is the greatness that Heaven ap¬ 
proves. Shame must have caused their face to 
blush and burn as they beheld the Master 
stooping to the duty of a slave. The whole 
scene is a picture that will never become old. 

That the Saviour should institute the Sup- 


42 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


per in order to commemorate his death is out 
of the usual course of things. Great men 
never do that. Such an act would blast their 
prospects of being remembered. If a memorial 
day or duty is established, it is done by those 
who admired the distinguished man, and not 
by the man himself. The action of the Saviour 
therefore is peculiar. The inference is, that 
he bears a relation to the race that is divine 
and redemptive, and so has the right to make 
himself the centre of all hearts. As the ex¬ 
piatory death of Christ is the central doctrine 
of Christianity, it is a wise arrangement to 
have that truth kept before the mind by the 
aid of a positive rite. 

It is surprising that the rites of the Christian 
Church are so few—simply baptism and the 
Lord’s Supper: the first, performed only once; 
the second, as often as love thinks best. In 
the religions outside of Christianity there is no 
end to ceremonies. When man works up a 
scheme of piety, each little matter is specified, 
so that in course of time there is no end to 
rites and ceremonies; and the result finally is, 
that religion is made to consist in merely at¬ 
tending to these. Christianity became corrupt 
when there was a departure from its original 
simplicity. Forms and sacraments were multi¬ 
plied, the number of sacred days and duties 


SURPRISES OF THE SAVIOUR. 


43 


were increased, new virtues and sins were in¬ 
vented, till it was difficult to distinguish what 
was called Christianity from heathenism. Re¬ 
ligion as Christ gave it to us is noted for its 
spirituality. “Jews and Gentiles had never 
conceived an idea of religion without any 
literal temple , without an altar, without sacri¬ 
fices, and without any sacrificing priest on 
earth. Such a religion could never have been 
invented , in those days, by any man, Jew or 
Gentile.” # 

The silence of Jesus in certain circumstances 
is a surprise. Men would have spoken, but 
he spoke not. What a sublime sight was that 
when the Saviour stood before the chief priests 
and elders on the night of his trial, saying not 
a word in his own defence, though men were 
testifying falsely against him! “ The high 

priest arose, and said unto him, Ahswerest 
thou nothing? But Jesus held his peace.” 
That silence inspires one with awe; we bow 
the head and worship. To be silent when we 
are praised is easy; but not so easy when 
assailed by falsehood. Yea, we deem it a vir¬ 
tue to defend our character. Christ, however, 
made no defence. He was willing to stand 
forth blackened by men who were deemed the 

* Archbishop Whately, “ Corruptions of Christianity,” 
p. 131. 


44 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


purest. To be defamed by those who are 
known to be corrupt, affects us less than to be 
defamed by men who are viewed as holy. It 
was something, then, for Jesus to be silent in 
the midst of the priests of God and the judicial 
officers of the state. Then, too, what height¬ 
ens the matter is the fact that Christ had no 
defender. Peter was there, but he said noth¬ 
ing. He simply told the servants that he was 
not one of Christ’s disciples. Many a friend 
fails us when we need him the most. Jesus 
is taken before Pilate. The governor is sur¬ 
rounded by those who are clamorous against 
this person who is deceiving the people. He 
says, “ Hearest thou not how many things 
they witness against thee? But Jesus an¬ 
swered him to never a word.” In no court-room 
had such a sight been seen. The silence of 
Innocence meets us. The flower is crushed, 
but its perfume fills all the air. I am not sur¬ 
prised that “ the governor marvelled greatly.” 
The eloquence of Silence had spoken to him. 
His sense of justice is awakened. He begins 
to take sides with the accused. He- asks, 
“ What evil hath he done ? ” The unreasoning 
mob cry out, “Let him be crucified.” Thus 
the scene goes forward. The Creator is tried 
by the creature, and the Holy is condemned by 
the sinful, yet he utters not a word. Here we 


SURPRISES OF THE SAVIOUR. 


45 


behold the dignity of Silence, and the silence 
of Dignity. 

It is surprising that a robber should be 
saved at the last hour. The fact shows the 
greatness of God’s mercy. The moralist is not 
pleased that favor should be extended to a 
criminal, while he himself is cast out. The 
significant point, however, is the one, that the 
criminal was penitent , while the moralist is 
not. This reveals the radical difference be¬ 
tween the two characters. However fair out¬ 
wardly a person may be, yet if he will not 
repent, he is in a state of rebellion. Possibly ' 
the robber had grown up in circumstances that 
were unfavorable, but that now finding the 
right way he cries for mercy. If any one does 
truly repent at death it would seem to be the 
man who has had few Christian advantages. 
He sees the truth almost for the first time, and 
so believes it. The man who has rejected the 
Gospel all the way up to the moment of death 
will be so hardened that he will likely die as 
he has lived. In the whole Bible there is no 
instance of a man’s repenting at the last hour 
save that of the malefactor who hung beside 
our Lord, and this is only mentioned by one 
Evangelist. This shows that it is just possible 
for one to find salvation at that time. 

There are phases of Christ’s action with 


46 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


reference to his mother that are peculiar. It 
is not mentioned that he ever addressed Mary 
as mother; his usual style is woman. The 
relation of the Virgin to her Divine Son was 
one of honor, but it must not be pressed too 
far. The incarnation was infinitely greater 
than motherhood. The fact that Mary was 
saved like other human beings enables us to 
see the real standing of the two parties. There 
is no intimation that Christ communicated 
with his mother after his resurrection. It is 
stated that she was in the upper room with 
the apostles; but she drops out of history after 
that time. Now, in a human point of view, it 
would be our impression that the risen Lord 
would take special notice of Mary and would 
be with her as often as possible. The peculiar 
conduct of the Saviour, therefore, forces us 
into the spiritual realm. He once stated that 
“ whosoever shall do the will of God, the same 
is my brother, and my sister, and mother.” 
Human relations are subordinate: divine rela¬ 
tions are superior. Christ is the mediator be¬ 
tween God and men , and his relation to an 
earthly mother must not interfere with such 
a high office. It may have been part of his 
training that he should gradually break from 
this human tie. That Mary sinks out of sight 
seems like the working of a divine plan. That 


SURPRISES OF THE SAVIOUR. 


47 


Christ in general says so little about his 
mother, but says a great deal about salvation, 
shows where the chief thoughts lie. “In 
Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, 
bond nor free, male nor female.” There is a 
point when the Saviour must withdraw from 
the motherly embrace. He is “ God over all 
and blessed forever.” He is to be trusted, 
obeyed, and worshipped. When the Redeemer 
entered upon his glorified state, his human 
nature was so completely elevated that it 
passed out of history. Reverence forbids that 
we think of him in eternity as we think of him 
in time. 

That Christ left behind him no writings is 
remarkable. It would seem to heighten every¬ 
thing if he had written what pertained to his 
life and mission. He preferred, however, to 
leave the business to men; yet men guided by 
the Spirit of God. The kingdoms of nature 
and redemption are carried forward through 
the medium of second causes. It is no doubt 
better for us that the Saviour penned no part 
of the Gospel history. Perhaps the tendency 
would have been to worship the Divine writ¬ 
ing, rather than the Divine Redeemer. 

Christ himself is the great surprise. 


CHAPTER III. 


SOLITUDE OF THE SAVIOUK. 

The Creator sets foot on the earth that he 
made, and yet the people whom he equally 
made do not recognize him. He is the Home¬ 
less Wanderer of Palestine, the Lonely Van¬ 
quisher of death, and the Opener of the gates 
of life. We think of the quietness that was 
ever about him, of the meekness that never 
went away, of a certan unexplained character 
that brought men to a stand, and of a solitude 
which singles him out as the Royal Stranger 
who tarried with us for a night. A kind of 
anxious suspense ought to characterize the 
soul as it contemplates the mysterious loneli¬ 
ness of the Son of God. We ought to pause 
as we think. Even if Christ were no more 
than the greatest of men, the solitude of his 
existence should invite our serious attention. 
But he is the God-man on a mission of mercy, 
and therefore the whole is heightened and 
deepened. 

The solitude of Jesus is evinced by the 


SOLITUDE OF THE SAVIOUR. 


49 


uniqueness of his being. He was human, and 
yet divine. There was a duality of nature, yet 
singleness of person. Here then is the won¬ 
der. Ho other being of this kind existed in the 
universe: there is only one God-man. In the 
constitution of the Deity there are three eter¬ 
nal persons, and thus no solitude. Compan¬ 
ionship in the Godhead is complete apart from 
any creation. But the eternal Son assumes 
the garb of mortals. Only one of the divine 
persons becomes a man. The eternal Spirit 
becomes not human. He quickens and com¬ 
forts the fallen, yet all is invisible. The eter¬ 
nal Father clothes not himself in flesh. He 
is boundless in compassion towards the guilty, 
yet no form makes it apparent. u The only 
begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father 
he hath declared him.” There is thus a unique¬ 
ness about the divine-human Saviour, and by 
that he stands alone. 

I do not say that any change took place in 
the nature of Deity by the incarnation. The 
perfection-of the Godhead forbids this. The 
pre-existent Logos was not emptied of essential 
power and essential glory by his assumption 
of human nature. Only this I say, that one 
of the divine trinity became a man, and in this 
duplex state he has a solitude of being paral¬ 
leled not by any created persons, for there are 


50 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


none like him; and paralleled not by the two 
uncreated persons, for they have not become 
incarnate, but he has. And be it understood 
also, that we are not now speaking of what 
may be called an ideal God-man—one who 
might be supposed to find ar place in a universe 
where all are holy—neither are we speaking of 
a glorified God-man throned at the right hand 
of the Father, and listening to the high praises 
of the countless multitudes of heaven; but he 
who is before us is the redemptive God-man, 
the veritable Being who lived in Palestine 
eighteen hundred years ago. 

I can well imagine that the solitude of Jesus 
deepened around him as he, in his human na¬ 
ture :, grew up into the full realization of his 
divinity. At first, he could not have appeared 
to himself as so far separated from the race as 
actually he was. But when the thought 
reached him that he was in very deed divine- 
human, then he could feel that he was alone 
as he never had felt before. As if a great part 
of a continent moved off into the open sea and 
settled there, so Jesus was insulated when he 
saw that deity and humanity were his. That 
must have been a wonderful moment in the 
life of Christ when he perceived that he had 
left the splendors of eternity in order to 
tabernacle in a human form. Then it was 


SOLITUDE OF THE SAVIOUR. 


51 


that an unusual loneliness begirt his spirit, as 
if an ancient star looked through the gloom of 
night with none beside it, or as if all the lamps 
of heaven went out but one, and that burned 
on and on with a light that was strange and 
awe-inspiring. 

Christ lived in a secluded region, out of the 
way of the world’s movement. He had come 
into the race from above, bringing with him 
treasures that are not found here. He was, in 
the strict sense of the word, a new man; just 
as much so as if a most brilliant star were to 
appear in the heavens for the first time, or an 
angel were to arise out of the ocean, and then 
walk upon its surging billows as easy as along 
the golden streets of the city of God. Talk 
about Christ being a lofty sage, a religious 
genius, is to talk without meaning. If he 
were not very much more than this, he was 
very much less. He seems like some royal 
bark of God sailing cross the sea of life, while 
all around are dismasted ships driven by 
storms. We think of him as a silvery wave 
of the eternal ocean, beating in solitude by 
day and by night, hastening away to the in¬ 
finite regions of life. Wherever he casts his 
eye there is death, while he alone is the Liv¬ 
ing One. 

The solitude of Jesus is clearly seen from 


52 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


the uniqueness of his mission and from the cir¬ 
cumstances which rose up to oppose it. If the 
constitution of his person was such as to sin¬ 
gle him out by himself amidst the immensity 
of existence, it might be expected that the work 
he had before him would also be peculiar. The 
fact that we have an Incarnate Being is a 
prophecy of some new" and wonderful mission. 
Yea, the fact that a Supernatural Person has 
come to dwell in a strange land is proof that 
the mission already is begun. To make atone¬ 
ment for a world of fallen beings is the one 
great work. This is unheard of. No intelli¬ 
gence of Heaven’s high monarchy ever con¬ 
ceived the thought. Christ has begun a task 
which he alone must finish; and whatever the 
pain, he must conquer and he must suffer as 
the case may be. 

There was not even one soul, as far as we 
know, that seemed to comprehend the true 
idea of his mission. His work was so distinctly 
original and divine, that there was a dullness 
of the human intellect and a deadness of the 
human heart with reference to it. The clear¬ 
est evidence was darkness to the darkened 
mind. The Saviour seemed like a teacher 
without pupils, a king without subjects, the 
guide to heaven with no one to go there. The 
first step which Jesus took among the Jewish 


SOLITUDE OF THE SAVIOUR. 


53 


scholars in the temple made not the wisest of 
them to see a divine youth standing in their 
presence. Even his mother, who knew of his 
supernatural birth and sinless years, could not 
fathom his strange course as he lingered be¬ 
hind the returning company with the doctors 
at Jerusalem. 

Sympathy which all men claim, and the good 
the most, he found not. The inhabitants 
where he dwelt cared not for him. Even his 
twelve apostles had about them an element of 
Judaic obtuseness. Their sympathy ran low 
and slow. However near he might want his 
disciples to come to him, a something held 
them back. The one fact of redemption, which 
kept pace with his life and culminated in his 
death, they could not be made to understand. 
Consequently no sympathy smoothed his way 
or softened the grief of his spirit. If I could 
find no more than this that he was “ a man of 
sorrows,” sufficient would be the evidence that 
in solitude he passed the days of his incarnate 
life. The deepest sorrow hides itself; and 
though but seldom the tear may fall, yet in 
the shaded loneliness of being, the drops of 
anguish keep falling which cause many a sigh. 
Whether on turbulent week-day the Saviour 
preached or prayed, or during the holy quiet 
of Sabbath hours he spoke and worshipped, all 


54 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


alike in this, that “ he bore our griefs and car¬ 
ried our sorrows ” wherever he went or what¬ 
ever he did. 

Mark the opposition that meets him. “ He 
came unto his own and his own received him 
not.” The founder of a new kingdom, he was 
not loved. The revealer of God, he was not 
believed. The rebuker of sin, he was hated. 
Whether in silence or speech, he was con¬ 
demned. Whether with publican or priest, 
with rich or poor, he was derided. True, he 
had followers, for the common people heard 
him gladly, and his fame spread beyond the 
limits of Canaan; yet with all this he was 
persecuted, and wherever there is persecution 
there is solitude. A priceless diamond from 
the throne of God is brought to our world, yet 
its beauty men do not see and its value men 
do not know. They pass it aside as if it were 
nothing, trample it under foot as if it were a 
worthless thing. If they take it up and look 
at it, they say its seeming clearness and unu¬ 
sual size are certain marks of inferiority; so 
they throw it away, exclaiming, Whoever may 
be deceived, we will not. They know not that 
this jewel has sparkled in the crown of God 
through all eternity. True is the language 
of the prophet: “ He hath no form nor comeli¬ 
ness ; and when we shall see him, there is no 


SOLITUDE OF THE SAVIOUR. 


beauty that we should desire him.” Like some 
noble Alpine flower shooting forth in the midst 
of wintry desolation, he bloomed and smiled 
on Canaan’s soil. Like some lonely cedar on 
the brow of Lebanon, he stood the prey of 
adverse winds. 

“ I have a baptism to be baptized with, and 
how am I straitened till it be accomplished.” 
That is a notable passage, crowded with a 
startling experience. There is a realization of 
the mighty task which no mere creature could 
carry out, or even undertake. The sense of 
this falls like a mountain weight on the soul 
of Jesus. He has come to work out salvation 
for untold millions. The thought is infinite. 
Solitude deepens. The future is open to his 
eye, and he beholds what he has to do and to 
suffer. Our being would be overwhelmed, if 
we knew what should happen to us in the 
present life. There are men who would sink 
into insanity, men who would die, if the future 
were revealed to them. 

Notice what may be called redemptive re¬ 
sponsibility . The obligations which Christ had 
assumed were extraordinary. They were de¬ 
signed to meet a crisis in the government of 
God. The destiny of millions hung on the 
faithfulness of the Son of man. If he failed, 
they failed; if he stood, they stood. The sense 


56 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


of responsibility with a good man is sometimes 
overwhelming. The whole mind is taxed to 
the utmost—the intellect, conscience, heart, 
and will. Help is needed from every quarter 
—the support of men, the assistance of angels, 
the strength of God. Faith must be unwaver¬ 
ing, hope must be cloudless, love must be 
glowing. If such be the demand with the 
natural obligation of men, how is the whole 
heightened with the supernatural obligation 
of Christ! We do not go too far when we say 
that the burden which pressed upon his spirit 
was so great that it produced pain. Let us 
not imagine that it was with ease and utmost 
passivity of soul that the Saviour wrought out 
salvation. “He trode the wine-press alone , 
and of the people there was none with him.” 
Christ was crucified before he hung on the 
tree; he died while he lived. 

Behold the intensity of his pain. Pain has 
degrees. The highest stretch of it is fearful. 
He offered himself each day to God; each hour 
as it passed bore up to heaven the sacrifice of 
Messiah’s spirit. Whatever the time, the place, 
the act, he was always the Lamb slain. If 
* you would see a man alone, see him in suffer¬ 
ing. If you would see the Redeemer alone, 
see him in the travail of his soul. Go to the 
garden on the night of his betrayal: the scene 


SOLITUDE OF THE SAVIOUR. 


57 


is real, it is solemn, it is solitary. The Divine 
Man is prostrate upon the earth. “ And be¬ 
ing in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and 
his sweat was as it were great drops of blood 
falling down to the ground.” What does this 
mean! What prayer offered he at that hour ? 
“Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass 
from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as 
thou wilt.” Verily no easy task is it to redeem 
a world. That cup of suffering seemed to ap¬ 
pall the mightiest Being that the earth had 
ever seen. But watch how the solitude be¬ 
comes still more solitary. The disciples of 
Jesus comprehend not the agony that is shak¬ 
ing his soul. They are asleep ! Strange sight! 
They speak no word of comfort; they quote 
no promise of God. Is he then alone? Yes, 
alone. The Mediator of man wrestles with 
God. His single prayer goes up to heaven. 
But notice—a quick-winged angel hastens 
down from the throne of God to strengthen 
him. At the darkest moment a single ray of 
light is seen. When no human comforter is 
nigh, a seraph bends over the Saviour. The 
heavenly messenger having fulfilled his mis¬ 
sion departs. The storm subdued a little, yet 
beats heavily. Judas draws near. Christ 
now “ is led as a lamb to the slaughter.” At 
the trying hour all his disciples flee. Peter 


58 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


denies his Lord. The Friend of man has no 
friend. In the darkness of night he is tried: 
in the morning he is condemned. A stranger 
carries his cross, yet not out of love, hut by 
compulsion, like many an unwilling disciple. 
There is not one to whom he can open his 
heart. A company of women lament his fate 
as they follow behind, but they understand 
not the import of his mission. He calls upon 
them to weep for their children and for them¬ 
selves. 

As the solitary sufferer he is now nailed 
to the tree. He hangs between heaven 
and earth, symbol of his mediation between 
Glod and the guilty. The passers-by revile 
him. What friends he has are lost in the crowd 
like many a disciple in the world. Each face 
about the cross is like the face of a foe. A 
company of malignant angels assault his spirit. 
They would make him fall from his innocency 
if possible. As the time is short, they try 
their utmost. They would blast the hopes of 
the world and of Jesus if they can. In the 
absence of any friend, nature sympathizes. 
The earth sighs, and there is an eclipse at 
noon. The very graves are opened, as if the 
speechless inhabitants of the sepulchre could 
no longer be silent, and as if eternity must 
unbar its gates by reason of anxious spirits 


SOLITUDE OF THE SAVIOUR. 


59 


from the realms of God. The hours move on 
with heavy march like the tread of mourners 
to the grave of friends. The laugh of the rude 
soldier is heard beneath the cross, and the joke 
of hardened men falls upon the ear. The 
priest and scribe quote Holy Writ to justify 
the death of him who claimed to be the Son 
of God. It must be two or three o’clock in 
the afternoon, and yet it is dark. Solitude 
connects itself more naturally with darkness 
than with light. Jesus, therefore, seems more 
alone. 

A mysterious woe now befalls his spirit such 
as no day before has ever seen, nor any night. 
He is forsaken of God. More dreary this than 
to be left by nearest friends; more to be feared 
than frown of man or anger of demon. No 
angel from the skies now comes to strengthen 
and to comfort in the trying hour. Heaven is 
shut. The earth has no look of love, no word 
of hope, no hand of help. The Mighty Sufferer 
is left i» himself. Out of the deep darkness 
he cries, as some lone man on a wreck at night 
with fierce billows rolling over him: “My 
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ” 
This surely is solitude. None like it before, 
none like it since, none in the coming years 
of time. The cup which the Saviour came to 
drink is taken down to its very dregs. The 


60 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


mediatorial suffering is ended. The spirit is 
committed to God. Jesus dies. The Innocent 
One has offered up himself a sacrifice to satisfy 
divine justice and to reconcile us to God. He 
wrestled, prayed, sorrowed, suffered, died, for 
sinful man in profound solitude. 


CHAPTER IV. 


PERFECTION OF THE SAVIOUR. 

“ It sometimes happens,” remarks Dr. John¬ 
son, “that too close an attention to minute 
exactness, or a too rigorous habit of examining 
everything by the standard of perfection , 
vitiates the temper, rather than improves the 
understanding, and teaches the mind to discern 
faults with unhappy penetration.” # This 
thought is often true in the working of our 
fallen nature, but it does not show itself in the 
experience of Christ. 

It is not possible for any human being to 
form the ideal of a perfect man. If the at¬ 
tempt were made, the ideal would be differ¬ 
ent at different times. As the man himself 
changed, his ideal would change; and so he 
never could be sure that he had reached the 
very ideal that was wanted. Let thousands 
of men try to form the ideal of a perfect man, 
and they would all differ in certain particulars 
from each other. They would succeed the 

* “ The Rambler,” No. 74. 


62 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


best in giving a general description of a perfect 
man. When they came to particulars they 
would fail. The particulars are so many that 
belong to a complete character, and there is 
such an infinite variety among the particulars, 
and such wisdom demanded to arrange them 
properly, that it is certain there would be a 
failure. So long as I made the attempt simply 
to give an outline of a perfect man, I might do 
something. If I were to say, for instance, that 
the perfect man never loses his temper in the 
most trying circumstances, that he is patient 
amid the most grievous afflictions, that he is 
contented whatever his condition, that he is a 
lover of the whole race of man, that his trust 
in G-od has no element of doubt, and that his 
love is as large as his soul and as complete as 
the divine law—in such a case you would have 
a general outline of a perfect man, and as far 
as it went it might be acceptable; but all this 
is different from the perfect man as seen in 
the minuteness and manifoldness of his char¬ 
acter. 

I can see as I look over the writings of some 
of the ancients that they had at times an ex¬ 
alted ideal of life. The Stoics tell us that 
“ the sage is alone truly free ”; “ the sage is 
the only rich man”; “the sage is the only 
king.” We are informed also that “ the sages 


PERFECTION OF TIIE SAVIOUR. 


63 


are divine, for they have God in themselves,” 
and that “ they are the only priests, for they 
have a correct knowledge with respect to offer¬ 
ings, statues of the gods, purifications and 
other services which are due to the gods.”* 
Here the idea is mixed with idolatry, showing 
that those vigorous minds of antiquity were 
not able to form the conception of a perfect 
man. Aristotle speaks thus: “ A man ought 
not to entertain human thoughts, as some 
would advise, because he is human, nor mortal 
thoughts, because he is mortal; but as far as 
it is possible he should make himself immortal, 
and do everything with a view to living in 
accordance with the best principle in him; al¬ 
though it be small in size, yet in power and 
value it is far more excellent than all.” f A 
fine thought can be seen here. The man is 
taken away from the human and the temporal, 
and is made to face the divine and the ever¬ 
lasting ; and as he looks at these and catches 
a glimpse of the true ideal, he is told to follow 
that in preference to everything else. 

A wrong view of God and a wrong view of 
sin will keep any man from understanding the 
nature of moral perfection; and all systems 
outside of Biblical teaching fail at these 

* Neander, in “Bibliotli. Sacra,” vol. x., p. 496. 

t “Nicom. Ethics,” p. 280. Bohn’s ed. 


64 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


points. Besides this, the mind is turned 
mainly to contemplation. The ideal is centred 
in the reason. He who could shut himself out 
from the world, not heeding its cares nor its 
pleasures, holding communion with verities 
that never change—he was the complete man. 
Hence the Platonic idea was, that there could 
he no perfect polity unless the philosopher was 
king. The mystics of all ages have been 
pleased with this silent life. 

But even if we could form the ideal of a 
perfect man, it would be nothing but an ab¬ 
straction. The great benefit we have in Chris¬ 
tianity is the possession of an ideal person , 
and not the mere ideal without the person. 
The ideal is realized. The perfect man stands 
out before us, and we see how he acts, how he 
feels, and what his thoughts are. Besides, we 
do not merely see this perfect man for a single 
day or a single week, as if he had come to us 
directly from heaven, and then, after a day or 
a week, had gone back to heaven again; but 
he is born here, grows up here, and passes 
through the different stages cf life just as we 
do ourselves. We see him as a child, as a 
youth, and as a man, and in each he is com¬ 
plete. He does not grow from evil into good¬ 
ness, but he is good from the start. For a sea¬ 
son he flourishes in retirement; a sweet and 


PERFECTION OF THE SAVIOUR. 


65 


heavenly flower; a joy that has winged its way 
from the climes of Grod; a purity like the eter¬ 
nal waters of life that have sparkled among 
the hills and valleys of paradise. For years he 
seems not to be known. Like a star he shines 
amid the darkness of time; no eye beholding 
his beauty; no soul pure enough to crave his 
presence; not one so pressed down with a 
sense of need as to say this star shall guide me 
to my home in the kingdom of blessedness. 

When the time comes the Saviour appears 
as a public character. He takes no easy path: 
a path that might be deemed suitable to one 
so great. He seems to go through all the 
planes of our human life; forcing himself, as it 
were, into our moulds; destitute as the chil¬ 
dren of want are found to be in a world like 
this. He toils, but his toil is neither for honor 
nor wealth; he labors unto weariness for souls 
that are lost. To those who feel that they are 
in bondage to sin, he says that he has come to 
open the prison doors and to let the oppressed 
go free. He attempts no sensation, throws 
out no bait to catch men, utters truth, sends 
forth an influence. His words enter the soul; 
touch the deepest part of the soul; bring to a 
stand natures that are crooked. As he deals 
only with truth, the malicious are maddened 
by his touch. They strike back; they would 


66 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


trample him down; they say he is the enemy 
of the people. 

Did Christ ever show the feeling of con¬ 
tempt f Some would answer, Yes; others, No. 
When he spoke of Herod as a “ fox,” was that 
the language of contempt? “Christ,” says 
Dr. Farrar, “deservedly bestowed on Herod 
Antipas the sole word of pure unmitigated 
contempt which is ever recorded to have passed 
his lips.” * I doubt whether the Saviour spoke 
of the crafty monarch in the way of contempt. 
He saw the cunning spirit of the man, and his 
words run in that line. Although Christ had 
no feeling of contempt for any human being, 
we are not to draw the inference that he 
viewed all alike, softening and flattening all 
moral distinctions by reason of a tasteless 
compassion. There was a most exact discrim¬ 
ination in his view of men; worth and worth¬ 
lessness never changed with him. His ten¬ 
derness never sunk into weakness, and al¬ 
though he was forgiving, he did not look upon 
sin as a trifle: he condemned just as strongly 
as he approved. 

The Saviour did not cut out an easy way 
for himself. He passed through a severe 
temptation at the beginning of his public life; 
teaching us a lesson, that if we would be sue- 

* “Life of Christ,” chap. xlii. 


PERFECTION OF THE SAVIOUR. 


67 


cessful in some new moral undertaking, we 
must school the soul in a sharp and rigid 
manner. He enters into our experience as far 
as that is possible, and comes out clean with¬ 
out any stain. We might have known by ex¬ 
press revelation that a perfect man lived in 
the eternal state, with its finely arranged cir¬ 
cumstances, but that would not be so satis¬ 
factory to us as to have the same man live 
upon the earth with its unfavorable surround¬ 
ings. He who is to stand at the head of a new 
race of godlike men must show by his trial 
and discipline that he is a kingly spirit, the 
highest and best that has yet appeared in all 
the systems of creaturely life. 

Pain as well as temptation must put to the 
test the perfect man. The pain becomes a 
new temptation. Yea, it becomes an exceed¬ 
ingly severe one, because the pain is intense. 
He, however, passes through it, not giving 
way at any point. It would seem as if he were 
made doubly perfect through suffering. The 
angels and our first parents fell from their 
purity when all was pleasant , but this new 
Man retains his integrity in the midst of pain. 
He thus has greater wealth and greater 
strength of character than they possessed. 
Yea, his victory over pain resulted in greater 
wealth and strength of character. 


68 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


It was not till Christ came and showed to 
the world what a sinless man was that they 
caught the idea. All was theory and specula¬ 
tion previous to the advent of the Son of Ood. 

* “ Cicero declares that he at least had never 
found a perfectly wise man: on the contrary, 
he says the philosophers are all at variance as 
to 1 what kind of a man such a one would be, 
if ever he might be expected to exist ’ Cicero 
had a sufficient knowledge both of ethics and 
history to qualify him for passing such a sen¬ 
tence, and we may well regard his opinion as 
expressing the consciousness of the educated 
portion of the ancient world. In fact, there 
did not exist in the sphere of heathenism an 
individual with whom the idea of moral fault¬ 
lessness could be associated.” * 

Since the Perfect One appeared, millions of 
men in every age, with various degees of Cul¬ 
ture, have fastened their eye on him and have 
rested there, glad to find the Reality that souls 
had been dreaming about. The first Chris¬ 
tians who saw him, or who heard about him, 
were satisfied that in him was found no evil 
thing. And what is remarkable, the Four 
Evangelists make no attempt to set off the 
Man of men. In fact, we are surprised at 
their unemotional way of doing things. We 

* Ullman, “ Sinlessness of Jesus,” p. 97. 


PERFECTION OF THE SAVIOUR. 


G9 


wonder why they were not excited once in a 
while, and under the excitement write beauti¬ 
ful passages about the Great Master. It is 
well that it was so, because Christ simply looks 
out upon us in all his native loveliness. High 
coloring, rich dress, fine jewelry, could not 
improve perfection. In the Epistles, as well 
as in the Gospels, the same quiet style is 
adopted with reference to Jesus. We are sim¬ 
ply told that “ he was holy, harmless, undefiled, 
separate from sinners”; “a lamb without 
blemish and without spot.” 

The character of Christ had depth, compass, 
power. He took up an action and finished it; 
not stopping half way, not grieving that he 
had begun. He lost no energy by questioning 
or indecision. His doings were free and 
rounded out. Yet his righteous force did not 
flash like the lightning. Quietly the good deed 
was done. There was all the secrecy of high 
life about his works. His acts were not 
seasoned with earthliness in order to attract 
souls. They echoed on ears that were open, 
and came to hearts as the dev/ comes to flow¬ 
ers. There is too much of human goodness 
that is ticketed, and marked as a merchant 
marks his goods. There was a mystic and 
heavenly kind of unselfishness about the life 
of Christ. He gave what he had with glad- 


70 


GREAT THOUGHTS OP THE BIBLE. 


ness; pleased when any received what he 
offered. He was not here on his own account. 
He was the one person who lived for others. 
Nothing but benevolence marked his way. 
He sacrificed himself each moment. 

The more we see of the lest men , the more 
we see of their infirmities , but the more we see 
of Jesus , the more we see of his goodness. No 
man will bear an examination. The most ex¬ 
alted human spirits appear the best in the dis¬ 
tance. Nearness of approach, the searching 
glance, reveal roughnesses even as oil paintings 
do when you stand beside them. The full- 
sailed ship is more attractive to a spectator 
than to one who walks the deck, and the lofty 
mountain is more grand when seen miles away 
than when one is standing at its base. Many 
a name has appeared well on the printed page 
to strangers, while to those who were better 
acquainted it was not so fair. A face with a 
wart here and there may look pleasant and 
beautiful in a picture, but it is because the 
wart scarcely appears in the photograph. A 
general outline of men is all that we can bear; 
multiplicity of particulars show imperfection. 
With Christ all was different. Those who 
knew him the best found him the best. He 
might show the entire working of his soul 
and no flaw would be detected. We mingle 


PERFECTION OF THE SAVIOUR. 


71 


with each other and seem to each other to be 
friends, and yet we have thoughts about each 
other that we would not venture to reveal. 
One of the most fearful revelations in the 
universe would be the revelation of a human 
soul. We may tremble when we think that 
God knows us. The Peerless One shines alone. 
Eternal glories beam forth from him as we 
pavilion ourselves beneath the splendors of his 
love. 

I believe that even wicked men find a degree 
of relief at times just to think of Christ. If 
they can picture out his character with any 
kind of fulness and finish, they are pleased. 
He is to them an ideal, the most complete they 
have ever known, and so their finest pieces of 
writing have been about him. It is remark¬ 
able that sceptical men have struck off passages 
relating to Jesus that are of the highest ex¬ 
cellence. They were compelled to do homage 
to One whom they could not obey; their im¬ 
agination being sounder than their heart; 
their taste having the mastery over them at 
the very time their unbelief was ugly and 
repellent. Note the two following citations 
as specimens of this kind of writing: 

“ Jesus unites in himself the sublimest pre¬ 
cepts and divinest practices, thus more than 
realizing the dream of prophets and sages; 


72 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


rises free from all prejudice of his age, nation, 
or sect; gives free range to the Spirit of Grod 
in his breast; secs aside the law, sacred and 
time-honored as it was, its forms, its sacrifices, 
its temple, and its priests; puts away the 
doctors of the law, subtle, learned, irrefragable, 
and pours out a doctrine beautiful as the light, 
sublime as heaven, and true as Grod. The phi¬ 
losophers, the poets, the prophets, the Rab¬ 
bis,—he rises above them all.” # “ It is diffi¬ 

cult to do justice to our intense love, reverence, 
and admiration for the character and teachings 
of Jesus. We regard him, not as the perfection 
of the intellectual or philosophic mind, but as 
the perfection of the spiritual character; as 
surpassing all men at all times in the closeness 
and depth of his communion with the Father. 
In reading his sayings, we feel that we are 
holding converse with the wisest, purest, 
noblest Being that ever clothed thought in the 
poor language of humanity.” j- 

Perhaps, if we knew the whole truth, we 
might find that some of the great painters 
have been led on by their genius, rather than 
by true piety, in their efforts to present to us 
a likeness of the Saviour. As the highest form 
of art does not consist in imitation, but in 

* Parker, “Discourse Pertaining to Religion,” p. 275. 

t Greg, “Creed of Christendom,” pp. 227, 228. 


PERFECTION OF THE SAVIOUR. 


73 


working out with reference to an ideal, so the 
finest painters have aimed to set forth on can¬ 
vas the ideal man. There is no doubt that in 
all this there was a degree of pleasure; a kind 
of natural rejoicing in Christ Jesus; a species 
of worship paid to the Son of man in the outer 
court. It may be that such men thought them¬ 
selves religious when they were not, just be¬ 
cause they could represent the Sinless One in 
a way of lowliness and majesty; and being 
enraptured with the work which they had 
done, should imagine that they were equally 
enraptured with Christ himself. 

Jesus has gone, and yet he is still here. 
There was an aroma to his being which told 
of paradise, and that aroma lingered among 
men after he went away. On the suffering 
days of life we can detect it. When earth is 
poor and heaven is rich to us we can perceive 
it. The radiance of his fife skirts our dark¬ 
ness, and the peacefulness of his soul comes 
to us as angels come during the morning watch 
of heaven. We seem to hear the sound of his 
footsteps of love, and echoes of joy seem to 
greet us as we thread our way to the unseen 
land. Neither child nor man is the same, just 
because he has lived here. There is a move¬ 
ment in the air and in the sea, a voice herald¬ 
ing the dawn and a glory figured in the clouds, 


74 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


because he tabernacled for years among the 
sons of men. The birds seem to sing more 
cheerfully, the insects play more happily, and 
the flowers send forth a sweeter perfume, be¬ 
cause the Lord of the creation lived upon the 
earth. The Divine Goodness walks with us 
when we know it not. Through the night the 
Hidden One leads us. In death the Life takes 
us home. In the kingdom of glory we shall 
dwell with him forever. 

Thou exalted Being! we cannot name thy 
perfections. Thy majesty is beyond our 
thought, and thy splendor is more glorious 
than our imagination can conceive. We tire 
in our efforts to describe thee. Thou art the 
source of life, the fountain of love, the home 
of rest. Thou art the fair country that has 
never been explored, the ocean of blessedness 
that has never been fathomed. When we shall 
be like thee and see thee as thou art, we shall 
be well. The hours of our life shall then be 
like the day of God, with no evening to darken 
it. In eternal youth we shall abide, and the 
older we become the younger we shall be. 


CHAPTER V. 

BEAUTY OF THE SAVIOUR’S CHARACTER. 

As to whether Christ’s physical nature was 
beautiful or not we cannot tell. It is of no 
profit to discuss that question. As to the 
pictures which pretend to represent the God- 
man, they seem to us entirely improper from 
a religious point of view. The sacredness of 
the person should forbid all attempts of that 
kind. Religious art is no help to an artless 
life. Better leave the Saviour where the Bible 
leaves him. Though we see him not we love 
him; and perhaps the love is more spiritual 
just because it is grounded on faith. Cer¬ 
tainly an imaginary likeness of the Son of God 
will not tend to make our love purer. In 
heaven he will be seen as he is. Let us wait 
for the heavenly vision. 

Beauty has laws, and these laws, as far as 
we have discovered them, enable us to under¬ 
stand the marked features of it, but they do 
not enable us to give a definition of it. No 
satisfactory definition has been found which 


76 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


contains within itself the complete idea of 
beauty. We are simply travelling towards such 
a point, and may by and by reach it. A class of 
subordinate thoughts are sure: 1. Beauty is 
in the object. 2. Reason gives us the idea of 
beauty, and so all men have it. 3. Wherever we 
find the beautiful we find a certain excellency. 
4. Beauty attracts us. 5. The feeling that is 
awakened by the beautiful is pleasant and un¬ 
selfish. 6. The tendency is to rest in beauty. 

Christ is not merely one of the manifesta¬ 
tions of beauty, but he is the expression of the 
collective beauty of the creation. The beau¬ 
ties of nature, of truth, and of goodness are 
summed up in him, and find in him their ideal 
perfection. Beauty is the radiance of Grod, 
and although it shows itself in countless forms, 
it always bears the stamp of divinity. “ The 
true prize of life,” remarks Plato, “ is the sight 
of the eternal beauty. Compared with such a 
sight as this, what would be the poor images 
of earth which so often trouble and perplex 
us ? What, I ask you, would be the destiny 
of that mortal to whom it should be given to 
contemplate the unmingled beauty in all its 
purity and simplicity, no longer invested with 
perishable human accompaniments, but face 
to face to see and know the beauty unchange¬ 
able and divine ? Think you he would have 


BEAUTY OF THE SAVIOUR’S CHARACTER. 77 

ground for complaint who, fixing his eyes on 
such an object, should give himself to celestial 
communion with it ? And is it not solely in 
the contemplation of the eternal beauty with 
that organ by which alone it can be seized, 
that he shall be enabled to produce, not im¬ 
ages of virtue, because it is not to images he 
is attaching himself, but virtues real and gen¬ 
uine, because it is truth alone that he loves.” * 
Such transcendent beauty as the above is real¬ 
ized in Christ. 

I. BEAUTY OF THE SAVIOUR’S CHARACTER FROM 
ITS FORM. 

Beauty that is abstracted from all matter 
and mind, and is viewed merely by itself, is 
too formless to move the soul. An imagined 
goodness in the same way that is not connected 
with an intelligent being is incapable of start¬ 
ing emotion. A winding river and a spire of 
a certain shape, plants and trees of a certain 
form, are beautiful. A gem apart from its 
quality may have a high degree of beauty be¬ 
cause of its form. Beautiful characteristics 
of a soul are superior to beautiful characteris¬ 
tics of a thing. 

Christ was always greater than his actions 

* Quoted in W. A. Butler’s “Lectures on Ancient Phil/’ 
vol. ii., p. 276, 


78 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


proclaimed him to be. The total excellence of 
his mind was never wholly expressed. The 
fountain was larger than the streams that 
flowed from it. Hence his inward beauty was 
more extended than the beauty that was seen 
in his life. There was a delicacy about his 
nature and mental states, a delicacy about his 
desires and thoughts, that never could find 
expression in word or deed. That spiritual 
delicacy was spiritual beauty; and although 
no mortal eye could see it, the divine eye be¬ 
held it with delight. 

There was a sublimity about certain move¬ 
ments of the Prince of Life that must arrest 
the attention of every serious person. His 
commanding the storm to be still, the sigh 
that ascended from his heart as he looked up 
to heaven, the glory that covered him on the 
mount as he conversed with the two redeemed 
men, his shedding tears over the doomed city 
of Jerusalem, are all manifestations of sub¬ 
limity. The wonderful idea of an incarnate 
God is sublime; and when that incarnate God 
ascends to the courts of life to reign over the 
universe, there is grandeur, sublimity, and 
beauty all in one. There is nothing contracted 
about the person and mission of our Lord. 
Everything is upon an extended scale. The 
glory is infinite. 


BEAUTY OF THE SAVIOUR’S CHARACTER. 79 


n. BEAUTY OF THE SAVIOUR’S CHARACTER FROM 
ITS SIMPLICITY. 

Simplicity is a mark of greatness as well as 
a mark of beauty. The higher the person the 
more conspicuous is the simplicity, and the 
more charming it appears. Extraneous things 
are cut away from that which is simple, and 
we behold thought and speech, act and instru¬ 
ment, in their undivided excellence. A showy 
nature wants that which will catch the eye 
and astonish the spectator, rather than that 
which will pass current with God. The sim¬ 
plicity of Christ characterized his entire life, 
and was not a virtue which appeared on spe¬ 
cial occasions. That it was uniform tended to 
conceal it. Souls of an inferior cast could not 
behold it. Only the simple-minded could de¬ 
tect it. From its nature it worked in lowli¬ 
ness, as if its sphere were the spiritual, rather 
than the material. The life of Jesus did not 
force itself upon human attention. It was 
there and spoke for itself, but its language 
was heavenly, and consequently foreign to the 
mass of the people. He was “ as a root out 
of a dry ground.” The character of the Sav¬ 
iour was definite; as much so as a garden of 
flowers and the starry heavens; but it could 
only be fully prized by saints and angels, HiV 


80 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


life unfolded itself, not according to the nat¬ 
ural which belongs to us, but according to the 
truly natural. He flourished as the first of all 
the plants in paradise, yet growing in a desert 
land with sullen skies. 

The simplicity of the Saviour had single¬ 
ness. It seemed the essence as well as the 
aroma of love; the ointment of spikenard 
that was pure and that brought a high price. 
He struck but one thought, and that carried 
him through from beginning to end. The 
absolute sincerity of a great spirit was simply 
seen at work, heeding nothing but the single 
and supreme business of his life. In the 
speech of Jesus there is a great deal of artless 
word-painting. This may arise from the vivid¬ 
ness of his style, and from the striking meta¬ 
phors which he uses. “ Jesus Christ speaks of 
the most sublime subjects with such simplicity, 
that he seems not to have thought on them; 
and yet with such accuracy, that what he 
thought is distinctly brought out. This union 
of artlessness with perspicuity is admirable.” * 

in. BEAUTY OF THE SAVIOUR’S CHARACTER FROM 
ITS HARMONY. 

An engine that works with ease seems like 
a noble creature, and we cannot help admiring 

* Pascal’s “Thoughts,” chfip. x. “On Jesus Christ.” 


BEAUTY OF THE SAVIOUR’S CHARACTER. 81 


it. Discords in music jar upon the mind. If 
we enter a school-room where all is confusion 
we are annoyed, hut if after a time there is 
order we are pleased. The ripple of waves on 
a calm lake or sea and their echo as they roll 
up on the shore, impress one with a sense of 
beauty, and we stand and gaze at the sight 
with pleasure. Christ’s life is to be looked at 
as a system. Foreign and unforeseen elements 
were not dovetailed into it as circumstances 
might seem to demand, neither were any parts 
broken off and cast aside as not suitable to 
special occasions. The God-man was erecting 
a glorious cathedral, and the wonderful fabric 
grew as a thing of life,—stone and style and 
size and ornamentation being just as the archi¬ 
tect intended. The life of Christ was not like 
that of any creature whatsoever, from the fact 
that he planned it before he came here. He 
was singular in that he had two existences; 
first the divine, then the human with the di¬ 
vine. 

Fixing the eye on the soul of Jesus, it can 
be seen to work in finest harmony. There 
was no wrong impulse, bias, or tendency; the 
entire soul was proportioned; the character 
was always balanced. Christ never stopped 
short of the mark, and never went too far. 
Purity leaped into pure act, and habits that 


82 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


expressed his nature held him fast. Men are 
clamorous for their rights, hut not eager to do 
right. The Saviour did right, and wasted no 
time in demanding his rights. His passive 
and positive nature showed no antagonism. 
Decision did not become stubbornness, nor 
courage coarseness, nor gentleness tameness. 
To the extent that he was tender he was se¬ 
vere, but his severity was simply the majesty 
of righteousness. Not the least vestige of 
sentimentalism appeared in his character. His 
patience in the midst of opposition was as¬ 
tonishing. “It frequently happens,” says 
Kobert Hall, “ that objects of the most perfect 
symmetry strike our minds less than those 
which are deformed. The first impression 
made on our minds by the contemplation of 
the Saviour’s excellencies is not always that 
of astonishment. It is that sort of moral ex¬ 
cellence which requires to be diligently studied 
and patiently examined: it will never strike 
the eye of a careless and indifferent specta¬ 
tor.” * 

IV. BEAUTY OF THE SAVIOUR’S CHARACTER FROM 
ITS MANIFOLDNESS ENDING IN UNITY. 

The variety that is in Christ is not the 
variety of select souls, but it is the variety 

* “ Works,” vol. iv., p. 165. New York ed. 


BEAUTY OF THE SAVIOUR’S CHARACTER. 83 


which marks the nature and works of a divine- 
human person. There is quality and compass 
which signalize his multiplicity, and which 
place him in a sphere by himself; so that he 
cannot be compared with the most exalted of 
mankind. If there were about him the usual 
variety of great minds, it would not be diffi¬ 
cult to find unity. But when we know that 
the God-man has so many points that are far- 
reaching and altogether peculiar, so many 
points also that cross and recross each other, 
having power and fineness that we cannot 
fully grasp, it is a great matter to bring all 
into oneness. If we were to see the different 
parts of a watch laid out on a table, and then 
see them put in their place by a workman, the 
watch set in motion and the exact time of day 
made known, we should exclaim, How com¬ 
plete and how beautiful! If the British 
Museum, with its thousands upon thousands 
of varied articles, could all be classified and 
brought to a centre of unity, it would in that 
case be an illustration of the oneness there is 
in Christ. There are paintings of finished 
workmanship which appear to the unpractised 
eye as a kind of splendid chaos, because the 
principle of unity is not seen. Point out the 
principle of unity, and every part is luminous 
with skill and beauty, and one cannot find lan- 


84 GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 

guage sufficient to express the perfection of 
the work. That which brings all into unity 
in the life of the Saviour is redemption. 
“ Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just 
for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” 
This passage not only informs us that the 
atonement is the culmination of Christ’s mis¬ 
sion upon earth, and the end to which it ever¬ 
more pointed, but it tells us also that it is the 
means by which we are united to God. The 
whole matter is thus complete, and we can go 
no further. u Man’s nature, need, and destiny 
are, so to speak, wrapped up in Christ. The 
secrets of our inmost being, the enigmas of 
our destiny, are revealed to us in Christ, and 
in him alone. Life is a maze; and we do not 
find the clue to guide us safely through until 
we find Christ. Life is an enigma, and the 
word that solves the enigma is Christ, the 
Word of God.” * 

V. BEAUTY OF THE SAVIOUR'S CHARACTER FROM 
THE REPOSE THAT CROWNED IT. 

Unless our views of Jesus are extended, we 
may lose sight of the repose which settled 
down upon his finished nature. It is true that 
he had an unusual sadness, but did that banish 
rest from his soul ? Could he not have two 


Smith, “ Christian Theology/’ p. 379. 


BEAUTY OF THE SAVIOUR’S CHARACTER. 85 


opposite feelings at tlie same time, just like 
the martyrs who praised God in the midst of 
the flames! The very sadness which hung 
around him seemed to humanize his divine 
character, even as a blue sky adds to the 
beauty of a summer’s day. He did not feel 
disappointed or discontented. He was cer¬ 
tainly satisfied with himself in the course he 
pursued, though pain was in it; and did not 
that holy self-satisfaction contain an element 
of repose! We make a great mistake if we 
think that there was nothing but one sensation 
of suffering in the soul of Christ. He could 
not annihilate the rich approval of his own 
nature which arose in view of his redemptive 
righteousness, even though that redemptive 
righteousness included agonies and death. 
The fact that in his communion with the eter¬ 
nal Father he could say, “ I have glorified thee 
on the earth, I have finished the work which 
thou gavest me to do,” shows that he was in 
a state of repose at that time. The trust that 
had no doubt, the decision that had no waver¬ 
ing, and the perseverance that faltered not in 
the trying hour, ended in rest. There was a 
sub limi ty about his composure from the fact 
that it spread over his soul while in the midst 
of great suffering, reminding one of the over¬ 
stretching vastness of the creation in a state 


86 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


of quiet, while away below is the loud beating 
of the storm. 

The beauty that had form, simplicity, har¬ 
mony, and manifoldness that came round into 
unity, must end in the state of repose. As 
the Saviour’s beauty was that of the seven- 
colored light it was serene and akin to the rest 
of Grod. His beauty had power, and the power 
ended in peace. Jesus was a divine flower 
that moved from place to place, attracting 
souls by its beauty, and filling the air with its 
fragrance. 


CHAPTER VI. 


SUGGESTIVE POWER OF THE SAVIOUR’S PER¬ 
SONALITY. 

The personality of Christ affects minds 
in a way that is characteristic of the minds 
affected. He does not awaken in every soul 
the same kind of emotions in the same circum¬ 
stances. One person may he touched with 
admiration as he views the Saviour at a par¬ 
ticular time, while another person is awed into 
silence. A law of association may he struck 
by the Redeemer; hut the links of association 
being different in the different persons, the 
thoughts suggested and the feelings started 
are not the same in each case. When we take 
up a hook and read it, the benefit we gain from 
that hook does not consist merely in the in¬ 
formation which it conveys. The hook may 
contain a number of original thoughts, and 
thoughts also of great weight which are not 
original; and so they suggest trains of think¬ 
ing that are far-reaching; and this, he it un¬ 
derstood, apart from the plain import of the 


88 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


thoughts themselves. There may be sentences 
that we can ponder for hours, just because 
they give hints of topics that we had not 
thought of, or at least had not thought of in 
the way that is now suggested to the mind. 

In looking at Christ, then, it is not merely 
that we become acquainted with notable truths 
and facts, but it is this, that a new world of 
truth is called into being by the suggestive 
power of his personality. We have but to put 
ourselves in contact with him, allowing him 
to move us, when all at once there is kindled 
within us a consciousness that we had not 
before. Take the following illustration. The 
Apostle Peter, having toiled all night and had 
taken nothing, the Saviour tells him to let 
down the net. Surprised at the command, ho 
yet obeys; when, behold, they inclose a multi¬ 
tude of fishes, so that the net begins to break. 
Now, though Peter is greatly astonished, and 
we might suppose that he would express his 
gratitude to the Saviour, his feelings do not 
flow in that direction at present. He surprises 
us by a movement we would not have thought 
of. “ He fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, De¬ 
part from me; for I ami a sinful man , O Lord.” 
While this feeling of personal sinfulness is 
suitable at all times, yet under the circum¬ 
stances it is peculiar. There was no attempt 


SUGGESTIVENESS OF THE SAVIOUR. 


89 


on the part of Christ to teach the doctrine of 
sin or the doctrine of holiness, and yet both 
doctrines struck the mind of the apostle at that 
moment. This shows that persons can be 
affected in a certain way without any direct 
efforts being put forth to make them feel in 
that way. Yea, sometimes direct efforts fail, 
while those that are indirect succeed. A pure 
and exalted individual may be silent, and yet 
virtue goes forth from him. In view of his 
presence, one man may have a new thought 
and another man a new feeling; while again, 
one may find that evil habits are giving away, 
but another finds that his evil habits are really 
strengthened. 

As we study the case of Peter, we can see 
that he had a number of feelings besides the 
feeling of sin. He was excited and somewhat 
dazed, feeling at the same time his unworthi¬ 
ness. It is wonderful what an array of emo¬ 
tions will be started in the soul by an act, a 
word, or a person. Indeed, whenever we are 
aroused from the centre, there is generally a 
collection of feelings working out in different 
ways, and these sometimes losing themselves 
in one leading passion. There is vastly more 
going on within us than we know. Peter felt 
how utterly insignificant he was, because 
Christ was seen to be great. The feeling of 


90 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


littleness is generally awakened by the per¬ 
ception of greatness. A storm on sea or land 
that sweeps all before it, a vast range of moun¬ 
tains whose summits are lost in the clouds, the 
eternal stars as they shine in silence in the far 
deeps of heaven, will impress us with a sense 
of our nothingness. Leonardo da Vinci says, 
“We should place a light background in con¬ 
trast to a shadow, and a dark background to a 
mass of light.” Eembrandt varied this prin¬ 
ciple. “He opposed to the shadow a still 
deeper tone, and to the light a still more vivid 
brilliance: light against light, and darkness 
against dark.” Whichever way we bring out 
the contrast, the sinful soul is little, and the 
Sinless Saviour is great. 

I am prompted to think of Christ in the 
imagination . Whether he is called “ the chief 
corner-stone ” or “ the morning star,” it is the 
imagination that is struggling to make him 
tangible to our consciousness. It is deeply 
- interesting to notice to what an extent the 
imagination can be traced throughout the 
Bible. The striking figures of Scripture show 
the working of a sanctified imagination; show 
that the pictorial faculty has been made use 
of by the Spirit of Glod in the great work of 
redemption. It is certainly remarkable that 
so much of the Bible is in the form of poetry, 


SUGGESTIVENESS OF THE SAVIOUR. 


91 


and not in the form of prose. It thus falls 
pleasantly on the ear, and as pleasantly goes 
to the heart. It is exceedingly suggestive that 
the Lord of glory did not merely become in¬ 
carnate, but that he became incarnate in 
human speech; so that the laborer in the field, 
the mechanic in the shop, and the merchant 
at the counter, have each a kind of Christly 
language—the form and warmth being there 
by the aid of a spiritual imagination. There 
is a bridge in an Austrian city that has twelve ' 
statues of Christ. These represent him as a 
prophet, priest, king, shepherd, pilot, physi¬ 
cian, carpenter, and so forth. Different men 
passing over the bridge behold the Saviour 
according to what they are. The sick man 
sees him as a physician, the sailor as a pilot, 
the mechanic as a carpenter, the sinner as a 
priest. Thus he fits all classes. 

If our imagination were not cultivated by 
the word of God, we could not form a proper 
ideal of Christ. The realism of the Evangelic 
Narratives is the result of a pure imagination. 
When we consider in what a small compass 
the life of the Saviour, is found, and yet with 
what definiteness he stands out before Chris¬ 
tendom, we see that he is made quite real to 
us. He seems to grow as we look at him. The 
ideal of Christ in the imagination does not 


92 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


remain there in solitary grandeur. If we give 
him a central place in any faculty of the soul, 
he influences all the other faculties. He is like 
the sun in the midst of the system—“ nothing 
is hid from the heat thereof.” Our mind from 
its nature wants many ideals; those of knowl¬ 
edge and skill, of love and beauty, of power 
and peace. It is a valuable remark of Cole¬ 
ridge, that the Bible differs from all the so- 
called sacred books in its strong and frequent 
recommendations of “truth.” Christ is the 
summing up of the whole scheme of Scripture 
truth. A system of theology could be evolved 
from the personality of the God-man. He is 
the Christian’s Bible, as well as the Christian’s 
salvation. Thus if a man would be wise and 
useful, he can be made such by having Christ 
formed in him the hope of glory. 

Glance now at the medical side of the Sav¬ 
iour’s life. There is no reason to think that 
the Gospel history gives us a full account of 
the number of cures which Christ performed. 
If we knew all the cures, the nature of the 
diseases, and the way the persons were healed, 
the picture would be an exciting one. The 
diary of such a physician as Jesus would form 
an interesting book. Suppose, however, that 
he had healed no one, and that no one ever 
thought of coming to him to be healed, what 


SUGGESTIVENESS OF THE SAVIOUR. 


93 


a difference there would have been in his life. 
And yet, if he had never acted as a physician, 
we should not have thought that anything was 
wanting. There would have been a complete 
life, irrespective of the healing characteristic. 
We thus see that the medical side of Christ’s 
life was an extra good. Healing so many sick 
people was nothing less than a manifestation 
of supererogatory benevolence. It was, so to 
speak, an enlargement of life and being. It 
was adding on a section of love to a person who 
was already most lovely. The wealth of the 
Redeemer and of redemption is thus all the 
more striking. 

The miracles of Christ are allegories of salva¬ 
tion. What he did with reference to the bodies 
of men, he now does with reference to their 
souls. The blind were made to see, the deaf 
to hear, the dumb to speak, just as now the 
dark mind is enlightened, the heedless made 
attentive, and the silent tongue led to praise 
Grod. Every form of disease was healed, and 
every form of sin is now destroyed. As the 
sick expressed their sense of need with differ¬ 
ent degrees of intensity, so do fallen souls at 
present. The means used in curing were not 
always the same, just as now men are brought 
to repentance by different agencies. Some¬ 
times persons were carried into the presence 


94 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


of the Great Healer by the benevolent, and 
sometimes friends interceded for those at a 
distance, just as we lead the wanderer to 
Christ, and plead for those who are far away. 
But as in all cases faith was required, so now 
he only that believeth shall be saved. Thus 
the Saviour has been living in two worlds of 
action and influence, the one shadowing forth 
the other. 

Aspirations that are unbounded may be awak¬ 
ened in certain minds by the presence of 
Christ. Everything about him was upon an 
extended scale. He had plans that related to 
the whole world of man, and that went back to 
an eternity that is past, and forward to an 
eternity that is to come. At the moment he 
was upon earth, he was also in heaven. Look¬ 
ing at the Mediator with his infinite contrasts, 
we seem to be carried away to limitless realms. 
There we mingle in scenes that match with 
our immortal nature. We breathe the air of 
those higher worlds that shine afar, and shine 
forever. We catch the notes of jubilant wor¬ 
shippers as they chant the high praises of 
God. We rest for the time with the royal 
people who fill the great immensities, or walk 
with the companies of the celestial among 
the gardens and groves of the saved, with no 
evil thing to come near or to fear. What a 


SUGGESTIVENESS OF THE SAVIOUR. 


95 


relief it is to ns, who are worried and wearied 
on the scorching days of life, that we can fly 
away to the great kingdoms of delight, and 
there spend an hour in reflections that bring 
peace to the sonl. What a blessing it is to 
have a nature that has longings for unbounded 
good, so that when we are moved upon by a 
great personality we can soar upward to the 
place where that good is found, and can lay 
hold of the fruit that grows there, and drink 
of the streams that flow among the hills and 
glens of immortality. 

How plain it is that we are made for God, 
and that we shall never be well till we find 
him. In the language of St. Barnard, we can 
say, “Nothing, Lord, that is thine can suffice 
me without thyself, nor can anything that is 
mine without myself be pleasing to thee.” We 
may tie ourselves down with the cords of 
earthly occupation and may weigh ourselves 
down with the burdens of earthly care, but 
after all, when Christ is near and dear to us 
and the far-away country of life comes into 
view, we then betake ourselves to that land 
of peacefulness and plenty, finding quite soon 
that what we are so anxious to get here, is as 
nothing to what we find there. We are too 
much like children who run to catch the rain¬ 
bow, and like them we come no nearer to the 


96 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


radiant glory that charms us on. It is wonder¬ 
ful that we, who are made to he so manly, are 
yet so mean, and that we can afford to torment 
ourselves into pleasures which, when we get 
them, instantly fly away; not remembering 
that in those infinite commonwealths are joys 
which bear the stamp of eternity. 

When we attempt to look into the divine 
and the everlasting, we meet the indefinite and 
mysterious . Even our greatest passions, our 
loftiest thoughts, and our grandest ideals, 
shade off into the indefinite. Our life is always 
a feeble life when we can see straight through 
it. That which we can weigh and measure is 
sure to be light and limited. There are realms 
in the human soul that have never yet been 
explored. We simply stand at the borders of 
them and look off through twilight into dark¬ 
ness ; hearing now and then the sound of ocean 
waves, and knowing from that sound that an 
ocean is there; but just what are the character¬ 
istics of that ocean we cannot tell. Infinite 
problems tax us. A good that we can fully 
explain in not the good. The Bible speaks of 
“ the unsearchable riches of Christ,” showing 
that there is a phase of the indefinite and the 
mysterious about the greatest work and won¬ 
der of time. With Glod there is no mystery. 
But we shall never be like him; shall only be 


SUGGESTIVENESS OF THE SAVIOUR. 


97 


approaching him forever. There is a Tamul 
proverb which tells ns that “ flowers beyond 
our reach are sacred to God.” There are many 
flowers of that kind. We see them dimly on 
the jutting crags of the divine mountains; 
catch a little of the sweet perfume that comes 
from them; wish we could reach them; but we 
reach them not: they are sacred to God. 

There is suggested to us by the personality 
of Christ the vanity of mere human endeavor . 
The Son of God and Son of man absolutely 
lived. We only half live; sometimes not that. 
There was nothing of the fickle and the fleet¬ 
ing about him; nothing that might be clipped 
away with advantage, leaving the sound and 
the substantial as the heritage of his nature. 
His whole life was compact with the true and 
the good. When we look at this high Chief¬ 
tain of the race, travelling in the greatness of 
his strength in order to carry out the one em¬ 
bassy of reconciliation, with none to aid or to 
cheer, we can see how much of the absolutely 
real there was about his works and his ways; 
and, by the contrast, how much of the unreal 
hangs about us as we thread our way to the 
infinite life. How intent we are at times in 
regard to sheer vanities; fierce and fighting if 
any one attempts to take these vanities away 
from us, as if our very existence were locked 


98 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


up in them, and we should be dull and dead if 
we had them not. 

Then what a great deal of human endeavor 
is misplaced, has no eternal value, is exhaust¬ 
ing and not strengthening, is simply pain and 
perplexity to a God-created mind; and yet that 
same mind will wear itself out after it knows 
that the whole ends in vanity. It would seem 
that the creaturely spirit is in the midst of a 
great unrest, and that to escape from it, or at 
least to lose sight of it, earthly objects are held 
fast, and so the strange soul presses on with 
them in dead earnest, as if in that way it could 
find a degree of happiness. When we look, on 
the one hand, at the Saviour toiling to secure 
the salvation of a lost race, his whole being 
possessed with that great reality, and then 
look, on the other hand, at men eager with 
reference to the things of time, forgetting their 
eternal well being, we are amazed at the in¬ 
fatuation of mortals, acting as if some dire 
necessity were driving them on, heedless of 
consequences. There stands in a certain part 
« of India an ancient mosque of great size. “ Its 
chief gateway is one hundred and twenty feet 
in height, and the same in breadth. Inside 
this gateway is engraved on stone, in large 
characters, a remarkable sentence in Arabic. 
Literally translated, it is as follows, ‘ Jesus, 


SUGGESTIVENESS OF THE SAVIOUR. 


99 


on whom be peace, has said, The world is 

MERELY A BRIDGE; YOU ARE TO PASS OVER IT 
AND NOT TO BUILD YOUR DWELLINGS UPON IT.’ ” * 
Although the Saviour did not Titter these 
words, they are full of wisdom. The most of 
men do build upon the bridge, instead of press¬ 
ing on to the fair country that lies beyond. 

The more I look at Christ, the more I see 
that the permanent , instead of the transient, 
demands the chief attention. He fixed his eye 
on movements that were eternal, while to ob¬ 
jects that were local and limited he simply 
gave a passing notice. There is a great deal 
of the scenic and theatric about the life of man. 
The transient in certain cases is valuable and 
must be attended to, but this is only for a 
time. Not till we grasp immutable truth and 
immutable right shall we be satisfied. We 
must have principles that will stand the test 
of eternity, and an unchangeable God to rest 
in when that eternity is reached. If I am to love 
purity a million of years from this time, I must 
love purity now. I need not be deceived in re¬ 
gard to my fate in the great hereafter. My soul 
was given me to think, and I must think truly. 
I am either held fast by eternal sin or eternal 
holiness. If I am to be settled in heaven after 
death, I must be settled in heaven before death. 

* See “Life of Dr. Duff,” vol. ii., p. 164. New York ed. 



PART II 


GREAT THOUGHTS OP THE BIBLE WHICH PERTAIN TO 
CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OP SALVATION. 






V 


CHAPTER I. 


A GEOUP OF GEEAT THOUGHTS OF THE OLD 
TESTAMENT. 

Befoee I take up the main subject, I want 
just to call attention to a principle of order 
that is seen in the Pentateuch. At the very 
beginning of Genesis we notice the great work¬ 
ing week of the Almighty. The inorganic 
kingdom is marked off, then the organic, and 
the whole ending with man. Myth or legend 
does not appear, but sober truth in condensed 
form and sublime language. Then the geneal¬ 
ogies are exceedingly significant. We behold 
races, civilizations, and histories. Persons 
and places, times and events, are carefully 
noted. We have fuller information of the 
ancient world from such sources than from 
any writings outside of the Bible. By the aid 
of the tenth chapter of Genesis, Mr. Rawlinson 
has been able to give a very interesting account 
of the planting of ancient nations. Order is 
seen in the description of the ark of Noah and 
of the various animals which entered into it. 


104 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


The different stages of the flood are noted with 
great exactness. The confusion of tongues is 
mentioned, and how the people were com¬ 
pelled to form settlements in different coun¬ 
tries. The number of the persons who went 
down into Egypt of the family of Jacob is 
stated; the time they were to be there in bond¬ 
age is stated also; and when they left, the 
number of the men who were fit for war is 
mentioned. Notice also how the children of 
Israel in the Wilderness are organized. The 
leading families, number of the tribes, rulers 
of the tribes, standards of the tribes, are men¬ 
tioned. Order shows itself in all that per¬ 
tained to the tabernacle, the sacred vessels, 
offerings, festivals, priests. The different 
places where the people encamped in their 
wanderings from Egypt to the Holy Land are 
specified. The victories that were gained on 
the east of the Jordan and the doings of Ba¬ 
laam from first to last are stated with exact¬ 
ness. We are even told that the persons who 
died because of their sinful connection with 
the Medianites were “ twenty and four thou¬ 
sand.” The boundaries of the land of Canaan 
are definitely marked, and the persons are 
named who were to divide the territory among 
the tribes. The Levitical cities were to be 
“ forty-eight.” It is worthy of special notice 


THOUGHTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 105 


also, that sixteen chapters in Exodus, twenty 
in Leviticus, and sixteen in Numbers begin 
with the words—“ And the Lord spake unto 
Moses.” Count how many times Moses is 
mentioned in the Bible. 

Coming now to our theme, the first great 
thought of the Old Testament is that of God. 
This in reality is the first great thought. In 
the opening verse of the Bible and in the first 
line of the Bible it is God. He is the great 
nominative acting at the beginning and acting 
all the way through. The man who reads his 
Bible and is not affected by this infinite 
thought, is like a person living at the foot of 
Mont Blanc who only looks at the stream that 
rushes along, looks at the wild flowers that 
grow on its margin, but never lifts his eyes to 
the great mountain with its snow-capped 
summit and its silent rivers of eternal ice. 
Scripture accepts God as a fact. Monotheism 
is the first faith of the human race. The idea 
that man began with polytheism and advanced 
to the belief in one God, is nothing but theory. 
Idolatry shows that the race have deteriorated. 
When we trace back the history of the great 
nations to the utmost limit, we strike upon 
primitive monotheism. The first men were 
neither savages, nor fetich worshippers. 

As we scan the pages of the Old Testament 


106 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


we are struck with the variety of conceptions 
which relate to Giod. He is not chiselled out 
as some noted idol is chiselled out, and then 
left in blank isolation. He is spoken of as 
from everlasting to everlasting, the king of 
the ages. Whether I go to heaven or to hell, 
or to any imaginable point of existence, God 
is there. “He giveth to the young ravens 
that cry, and to the beasts their food.” “ He 
withholdeth no good thing from them that 
walk uprightly.” 

That there is no God but the one God is the 
doctrine that is emphasized. There was a 
contention among the ancient nations as to 
which God is the greatest. When Moses went 
to Pharaoh and asked that the Israelites might 
be permitted to go and worship the Lord Grod, 
he asks, “ Who is the Lord that I should obey 
his voice ? I know not the Lord; I will not 
let Israel go.” The trial that took place long 
afterwards on Mount Carmel was to settle the 
point whether Baal or Jehovah is God. The 
sign by fire was given, as had been proposed, 
and so the assembled multitude cried out, 
“ The Lord he is the God, the Lord he is the 
God.” When Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, 
came up against the defenced cities of Judah, 
he had an idea that his god was the greatest. 
He asks, “ Where are the gods of Hamath and 


THOUGHTS OP THE OLD TESTAMENT. 107 


Arpad ? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim 1 
Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand ? 
Who among all the gods of these lands have 
delivered their land out of my hand, that the 
Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my 
hand f ” Thus not even Jehovah could stand 
against his god, as he imagined. How affect- 
ingly Hezekiah prays in view of this thought: 
“Now, O Lord, our God, save us from his 
hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may 
know that thou art the Lord, even thou only? 
The Jewish people were a class of witnesses, 
whose business it was to prove to the nations 
that Jehovah is God alone. Even though they 
sink into idolatry at times, it is a noteworthy 
fact that the inspired writers never describe 
God in a way that is imperfect. Man may 
change, but God changes not. 

A second great thought is the striking nature 
and outwardness of the divine government as 
that was carried forward among the Jewish 
people. Supernatural manifestations appear 
ever and anon. They are seen with Adam, 
Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, 
Moses, and many others. The ten plagues of 
Egypt, the cloud by day and pillar of fire by 
night, the parting of the Red Sea to let the 
redeemed people pass over, manna sent for 
forty years, but never sent on the Sabbath, 


108 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


water that was made to flow from the rock, 
are all evidences of a supernatural system and 
quite striking in their nature. We see also 
how God communicated his will as to whether 
his people should go to war, whether they 
would gain the victory, and what should be 
done in certain great crises of the nation’s 
history. Strange sights were seen, voices of 
God were heard, and angels conversed with 
men. The supernatural bursts forth at times 
with as startling an effect as the ushering into 
existence of a new flower right before our eyes. 
Such striking manifestations are not seen in 
any land at present. 

The outward structure of the divine govern¬ 
ment is also peculiar. When the Jews were 
faithful to God, they were blessed in temporal 
things, and when they were unfaithful judg¬ 
ments came down upon them. The principle 
is thus stated: “If thou shalt hearken dili¬ 
gently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, 
then the Lord thy God will set thee up high 
above all the nations of the earth. Blessed 
shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt 
thou be in the field. Blessed shall be thy 
basket and thy store.” “ But if thou wilt not 
hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, 
cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed 
shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy 


THOUGHTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 109 


basket and thy store.” Sometimes a discus¬ 
sion would arise among the people whether 
they gained more by the service of God, or by 
the service of idols. It was their belief at 
times that everything went better with them 
when they worshipped idols, and so they would 
not worship God. In the book of Jeremiah 
they address the prophet in this way: “As for 
the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the 
name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto 
thee. But we will burn incense unto the queen 
of heaven and pour out drink offerings unto 
her, as our fathers, kings, and princes; for 
then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, 
and saw no evil.” No doubt God in his mercy 
did not always punish them at once; and so 
the‘fact that they prospered while in the midst 
of idolatry was attributed to their gods, and 
not to the true God, who is long suffering. I 
am not aware that the divine government has 
assumed the same form among any people as 
it did among the Jews in the times of the Old 
Testament. It had a literalness then and a 
particularity which were peculiar. When we 
at present behold certain persons greatly 
afflicted and certain persons greatly prospered, 
we cannot always say that the one class are 
wicked and the other righteous. It sometimes 
happens that the good suffer more than the 


110 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


bad. Still judgments do fall upon the wicked 
and blessings come to the righteous. 

From the fact that temporal rewards and 
punishments were made so prominent in the 
government over Israel, persons have drawn 
the inference that the doctrine of immortality 
is not revealed in the Old Testament. I should 
say that the doctrine of immortality was taken 
for granted by the Jewish people, and con¬ 
sequently little was said in regard to it; even 
as the Fourth of July is taken for granted by 
the American people, and they find no need of 
speaking about it all the time as a national 
holiday. As the Egyptians believed in re¬ 
wards and punishments after death, it would 
be strange if the Jews did not believe in the 
same, seeing they lived so long among that 
people. But the strangest thing of all would 
be that the race chosen of G-od and favored with 
the true religion should know nothing of a 
future life. It seems to us next to impossible 
for any one to work out a holy character who 
did not know but that death might end all. A 
religion that is bounded by the present life is 
Sadducean and destitute of vitality. The trans¬ 
lation of Enoch and Elijah pointed to the im¬ 
mortality of the soul. There are passages that 
teach the doctrine: “ I will behold thy face in 
righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I 


THOUGHTS OF THE OLD TESTA MEN T. 


Ill 


awake with thy likeness.” “ In thy presence 
is fulness of joy; at thy right hand are pleas¬ 
ures forevermore.” “ Many that sleep in the 
dust of the earth shall awake, some to ever¬ 
lasting life, and some to shame and everlasting 
contempt.” We learn from the epistle to the 
Hebrews that “Abraham looked for a city 
which hath foundations, whose builder and 
maker is God.” It is mentioned also that 
“ others were tortured, not accepting deliver¬ 
ance ; that they might obtain a better resur¬ 
rection.” The Old Testament is not silent 
touching the doctrine of immortality. Even 
the Rig Veda points to the immortality of the 
soul: “ He who gives alms goes to the highest 
place in heaven; he goes to the gods.” “ Where 
there is eternal light, in the world where the 
sun is placed, in that immortal imperishable 
world place me, 0 Soma. Where life is free, 
in the third heaven of heavens, where the 
worlds are radiant, there make me immortal! ” 
A third great thought of the Old Testament is 
redemption . This runs through the whole like 
a line of gold. The Old Testament gives us 
theology, and its power lies in the fact that it is 
redemptive. Everywhere we behold the blood 
of the innocent; the blood without which there 
is no remission. The thought that runs through 
the Old Testament is not merely that God is 


112 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


merciful, but it is the thought of sacrifice, the 
lamb slain upon the altar, and its blood poured 
out as an atonement for the guilty. God is 
merciful, but his mercy flows along a redemp¬ 
tive channel. Redemption begins after the 
fall with the sacrifices of the first family, and 
then keeps on through the patriarchal and Jew¬ 
ish dispensations. Redemption connects itself 
with a person: the seed of the woman, the 
Angel of the Lord, Messiah, the Prince of 
Peace, Immanuel. This person “ is wounded 
for our transgressions,” “ is cut off, but not for 
himself.” He whose name is the Branch is to 
come and sit upon his throne and be a priest 
upon his throne; and in the last book of the 
Old Testament we are told in plain language 
that the Lord himself is to come, even the 
Messenger of the covenant. The person called 
Jehovah is generally to be viewed as the God 
of revelation, the God of redemption, the God 
who assumes at times the human appearance, 
and finally becomes man. The entire ancient 
economy with its altars and priests, prophecies 
and promises, was but the shadow of the great 
Reality. The New Testament is wrapped up 
in the Old, and the Old Testament is made 
clear in the New. 

The fourth great thought of the Old Tes¬ 
tament is purity. “ Holiness to the Lord ” is 


THOUGHTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 113 


the one text. The rewards for obedience and 
punishments for disobedience press upon the 
mind the necessity of holiness. Everything 
pertaining to divine worship seems to have 
been arranged so as to make clear the idea of 
purity. The altar and the laver were the first 
objects which proclaimed that truth as one 
looked into the tabernacle or temple. All the 
vessels of divine service must be clean, the 
animals for sacrifice must be without blemish, 
the priests must be consecrated, and the people 
who come before God must not come in a 
defiled state. Hence the frequent washings, 
the sprinkling with blood, the holy place, and 
the holy of holies. The classification of beasts 
that were clean and beasts that were unclean, 
and the fact that all tainted with leprosy must 
stay by themselves, teach the same truth. 
Bedemption itself is a lesson upon purity. 
This is really the culminating thought; all is 
in order to this. Let this be wanting, and 
religion is nothing but a theatric show. The 
people might sink into all kinds of errors and 
sink into all kinds of wickedness, yet the Old 
Testament never changes in its demand for 
purity. In this it differs from the so-called 
sacred books of the heathen, for they are 
scarred with evil. If we ask, u Lord, who shall 
abide in thy tabernacle ? who shall dwell in thy 


114 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


holy hill ? ” the answer is definite: “ He that 
walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, 
and speaketh the truth in his heart.” To gain 
the divine approbation, to reach heaven, one 
must be holy. Sin must be condemned in 
ourselves, condemned in our friends, con¬ 
demned everywhere. He who labors to be holy, 
fights with himself to be holy, trusts and prays 
to be holy, weeps to be holy, is the true man. 

The fifth great thought of the Old Testament 
is the theology of the heart as expressed in the 
Psalms. “In the time of David the Lyric 
poetry of the Hebrews attained its highest 
splendor. The scattered wild flowers of the 
country were now gathered and planted, as a 
royal garland on Mount Zion.” “As David in 
his own age gave his own feelings and senti¬ 
ments general currency, and rendered his own 
style the predominant one in the songs of the 
temple, so the book was destined to become 
the book of devotional song for every age, for 
all nations, and all hearts.” * The Psalter is a 
Bible within the Bible. It is in the centre of 
the word of God, forming as it were its heart, 
and animating the entire body of truth. No 
part of Scripture is so experimental as the 
Psalms. The working of the inner life is laid 
open to view. The Psalter is the mirror of the 

* Herder, “Spirit of Hebrew Poetry,” vol. ii., pp. 222, 226. 


THOUGHTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 115 


pious man. There is not a feeling peculiar to 
the religious mind but that is expressed in the 
Psalms. It is a remark of Hengstenberg, that 
“ the radical character of the Psalms is feeling .” 
Of course it is a fact that the theology of the 
intellect is found there as the basis of the 
theology of the heart; but yet emotion is the 
chief thing. Let any one read through the 
Psalter, and note down the number and variety 
of the feelings mentioned, and he will be aston¬ 
ished. If a person is perplexed he will natu¬ 
rally turn to the Psalms for light and comfort. 
The sick, suffering, and persecuted go there 
by a kind of instinct. Hope and fear, penitence 
and faith, joy and grief, praise and prayer, are 
sketched to the life in the Psalms. The feel¬ 
ings of danger and deliverance, courage and 
thanksgiving, pain and peace, are truly ex¬ 
pressed. There is great freedom in regard to 
the expression of feeling. Sometimes a degree 
of abandon is revealed in deep depression and 
exultant gladness, as if the feelings must be 
stated just as they are. In no literature of 
heathen nations can we find anything like the 
Psalmody of Scripture. Considering its spirit¬ 
uality, the wonder is why its chief parts were 
not found in the New Testament instead of in 
the Old. 

Not one of us knows how much we are 


116 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


indebted to the Psalms in the matter of pri¬ 
vate and public worship. All the Christian 
Churches have been carried along age after age 
by their teaching; and the most formal of these 
churches have been kept from utter lifeless¬ 
ness by their influence. To what extent the 
languages of Christendom have been enriched 
by the Hymnology of the Bible no one can 
tell. The inspired odes have given to us fig¬ 
ures of speech, forms of expression, poetical 
turns of thought, and also a certain kind of 
aroma and atmosphere. The hymns that we 
sing in our homes and sanctuaries are often¬ 
times echoes of the Psalms, and there is no 
telling how much our hymn-writers have been 
moved by the lyric poetry of the Hebrews. It 
is difficult to account for the great wealth and 
great extent of hymnology in the different 
Christian countries unless we point to the 
Psalter as the source of inspiration. “For 
two thousand years have the Psalms frequently 
and differently been translated and imitated, 
and still there are many new formations of 
their much-embracing and rich manner pos¬ 
sible. They are flowers, which change their 
appearance in every time and in every soil— 
but always bloom in the beauty of youth. 
Just because the Psalter contains the simplest 
lyrical expressions of the most diversified feel- 


THOUGHTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 117 


mgs—it is the hymn look for all times.” Relig¬ 
ion seems to be treasured up in spiritual songs 
as in a golden casket. The French deists could 
not make up a liturgy without the help of the 
Psalms. Thus seeking help from the very 
Book which they despised. The Fifty-first 
Psalm will be a classic to every penitent heart 
till time shall end, and the Twenty-third will 
comfort many a soul as it passes u through the 
valley of the shadow of death.” 

Such are the five great thoughts of the Old 
Testament. God and his government go to¬ 
gether, redemption and purity go together, 
while the hymnological part forms a suitable 
conclusion. With these leading conceptions 
to guide the mind, the Old Testament is in¬ 
stinct with meaning. Wherever we read, we 
find these thoughts as centres. Inferior ideas 
can be connected with them, can be made to 
move around them, can gain strength from 
them. In a single chapter we may see the 
Divine Being and the divine government, re¬ 
demption and purity, and the fact of praise 
because of these. In one historical man, like 
Abraham or Moses, the five great thoughts 
are illustrated and enforced. The mother of 
Samuel, no less than Samuel himself, pro¬ 
claims them all. Even in the book of Esther, 
the five great thoughts are implied. 


CHAPTER II. 


CERTAIN GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE NEW TESTA¬ 
MENT. 

The twenty-seven small books of the New 
Testament contain twenty-seven great 
thoughts. The germs are found in the four 
Gospels; and the Acts, Epistles, and Apoc¬ 
alypse are the unfolding of these. 

I. MARKED SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NEW TESTA¬ 
MENT VIEW OF GOD. 

The New Testament reveals to us new intri¬ 
cacies and new glories of God. The soul is 
expanded by these. The mind that has been 
cultivated by the powers of the Christian sys¬ 
tem is deeper and more radiant than the mind 
that was cultivated by the powers of the Jew- 
ish system. 

1. We learn from the New Testament that 
there are three persons in the Godhead. These 
three persons constitute the one God. Remove 
the Son or the Spirit, and God would not exist. 
When we use the language, “ God the Father, 


THOUGHTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 119 

God the Son, and God the Spirit, three in one,” 
we do not mean that there are three Gods 
having one and the same plan, but three divine 
persons having one and the same nature. There 
is only one set of attributes for the three per¬ 
sons. We may speak of the infinite Father, 
infinite Son, and infinite Spirit, because the 
one infinite mind is used by all of these. There 
are not three infinites; only one infinite God. 
The trinal idea is a favorite one with many 
distinguished scholars. They point to the 
body, soul, and spirit as an illustration of it. 
This, however, is very different from that of 
the one God as subsisting in three persons. 

According to the teaching of Christianity, 
there is even an order among the persons of 
the Godhead; for we are u baptized in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost.” There is a something which dis¬ 
tinguishes each person, so that the identity of 
the one is never lost in the other. There is 
no higher and lower, no before and after, 
among'the persons. All are equal, all eternal, 
all divine. The subject is clear enough along 
certain lines. It is only when we reach a cer¬ 
tain point that mystery comes down upon us. 
No man has a right to say that the doctrine 
of a triune God is unreasonable. It is above 
reason, but not contrary to it. Indeed, it is a 


120 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


question whether it is not harder to conceive 
of the eternal existence of God, than it is to 
conceive of the tripersonality of God. I am 
not sure hut that we can see farther into the 
latter, than we can into the former. 

Let any Biblical Christian give an account 
of his religious experience, and he will of 
necessity bring in the three persons of the 
Godhead. Whenever the trinity is denied, the 
fundamental doctrines of Christianity are de¬ 
nied with it, and the system that is formed 
is simply bald naturalism, having neither 
warmth nor life. It is worthy of notice that 
the faith of the Church in all the Christian 
centuries is trinitarian. The doctrine is really 
settled and sealed for all time, and there is 
very little chance for any new arguments to 
be brought against it. 

2. God’s love is made prominent in the New 
• Testament. Our word “God” is from the 
Saxon, and means good. We call him the chief 
good, because he is infinite life, infinite per¬ 
fection, infinite blessedness. Catching the 
element of moral quality, we speak of the 
goodness of God. He is not merely almighty 
and intelligent, but he is the Holy One . The 
Bible puts a new meaning into the Greek word 
Theos , which the art-loving Greeks never 
imagined, when it says, “God is love? The 


THOUGHTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 121 


plan of salvation is the outcome and image of 
this high character of the Deity. “ Herein is 
love, not that we loved God, hut that he loved 
us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for 
our sins.” This suggests the thought that 
there is no manifestation of love so great as 
that which is expressed in the gift of God’s 
Son for the redemption of men, and it implies 
also that the divine glory is seen to a greater 
extent in the work of redemption than in the 
work of creation. The entire action of God 
outside of himself may be viewed as a speci¬ 
men of benevolence or giving, but the magnifi¬ 
cent donation of mercy is simply priceless. 

We are always at a disadvantage in describ¬ 
ing any attribute of God. Our thought comes 
short of the reality, and our language comes 
short of the thought. His love is lovelier and 
his mercy more merciful than the highest reach 
of our thinking. That fact is encouraging to 
those who feel the greatness of their sins, and 
wish to escape from them. Although it is in 
harmony with the nature of God that he should 
be merciful, it would be improper for a guilty 
man to say that God is under obligation to 
show mercy to him. Mercy is a favor, and 
cannot be claimed. An accountable creature, 
though sinful, can assert that God must do 
right ; but that is a different thing from saying 


122 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


that God must provide salvation for fallen men, 
and if he does not he will do wrong. Salva¬ 
tion is of grace, and not of debt, and for that 
reason one can be thankful and can praise God 
for his unspeakable gift. If man is simply 
getting his rights when salvation is provided 
for him, thankfulness and praise will not easily 
spring up in his heart. 

3. The fatherhood of God demands attention. 
It is safe to affirm that in not one of the relig¬ 
ions of men, and in not one of the sacred books 
of men is the fatherhood of God presented as 
a leading doctrine. The thought appears in 
the Old Testament, but it is stated with greater 
fulness in the New. Lest there should be dan¬ 
ger of viewing God too exclusively as a Being 
of eternal power and justice, we are taught to 
address him as Father. The Lord’s Prayer 
has been one great means of spreading the 
doctrine of the fatherhood of God, while the 
Lord himself has been the chief teacher of that 
doctrine. As a royal way to the human heart, 
there is none like it. It changes doubt into 
confidence, fear into love, despair into hope, 
and sadness into joy. “ If ye then, being evil, 
know how to give good gifts unto your chil¬ 
dren; how much more shall your heavenly 
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
him.” It is significant that the word “ Father ” 


THOUGHTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 123 

is not deemed sufficient, and so the word 
“ heavenly ” is linked on to it. In this way, 
the fatherhood is brought a step nearer to 
man, having about it a celestial radiance, thus 
charming the soul and hastening it on to the 
country where God has fixed his habitation. 
Deeply impressive are the words of Christ 
when about to return to heaven: “I ascend 
unto my Father, and your Father; and to my 
God, and your God.” 

As we examine carefully the Scripture 
passages relating to the fatherhood of God, we 
notice three different applications of the great 
truth. First, it points to that ineffable rela¬ 
tion in the constitution of the Godhead which 
subsists between the Father and the Son. 
Such Fathership and Sonship of course never 
can be equalled. All beneath is but the faint 
shadow of the primal reality. Secondly, God 
is the Father of all those who are spiritually 
like him. “ As many as are led by the Spirit 
of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have 
not received the spirit of bondage again to 
fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adop¬ 
tion, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” These 
persons having experienced a divine change 
in their character, are made sons of God by 
adoption , and consequently are “ heirs of God, 
and joint heirs with Christ.” Thirdly, God is 


124 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


the Father of all men. He is called “the 
Father of spirits.” “Have we not all one 
father ? hath not one God created ns ? ” Here 
fatherhood looks very much like the sympathy 
and compassion of the Creator as he views his 
lost creatures. Although the human spirit is 
struck with sin and is homeless, it still is of 
great value, and is the centre of great interest. 
However low it may sink, the stamp of divin¬ 
ity can never be wholly effaced from it, and 
G-od never can forget the work of his hands. 
He wants to lift up fallen men to the position 
of real sons of Giod, so that with the heart they 
may call him Father. If the doctrine of God’s 
fatherhood makes men to feel that they are 
better in the divine estimation than had been 
supposed, the doctrine in that case is mis¬ 
understood and misapplied. Human deprav¬ 
ity is not lessened a particle by it. God hates 
sin, while at the same time he shows kindness 
to the man who is guilty of it. We must be 
careful not to press the fatherhood of Giod too 
far, imagining that there is only one family in 
the universe; thus making saint and sinner, 
seraph and Satan, to be members of it. The 
kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness 
are from their nature distinct. The father¬ 
hood of God is powerful for good when rightly 
distinguished. It surprises man into new 


THOUGHTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 125 


views of the Deity, and of that salvation of 
which he is the Author. 

U. MAKKED SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NEW TESTA¬ 
MENT VIEW OF SALVATION. 

What was the supreme object which the Son 
of God had in view when he came to this 
earth ? He speaks of a “ work ” he had to do. 
What was that work? To say that he came 
to reveal the mercy of God, came to show a 
perfect example in living and dying, is just to 
say that Christ is not the author of eternal 
salvation. Others, coming nearer to the truth, 
inform us that the Eternal Word assumed 
human nature in order to purify souls. This 
does not meet the case, because to purify souls 
is the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus there is 
no work of Christ at all, and consequently no 
need of an incarnation. All such views miss 
the chief point, namely, that of atonement. 
“Christ came to give his life a ransom for 
many.” Substitution is the great doctrine of 
the Bible; the only doctrine that satisfies the 
guilty mind and the justice of God. “It is 
worthy of notice, that in every context where 
Christ mentions his work of obedience, he 
gives indications, more or less express, that 
he was conscious of standing in a unique posi¬ 
tion between God and man, and of mediating 


126 GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 

between them. And he never leaves his hear¬ 
ers to suppose that he was but one of many . 
He uniformly speaks of himself as performing 
a work in a mediatorial capacity, and acting 
as one for many?* If there is no atonement, 
there is no justification by faith. Justification 
in that case is simply being just , and so it is 
lost in sanctification. Salvation must first be 
objective before it can be subjective. The 
cause must exist before the effect. The Sav¬ 
iour must die before we can live. If there is 
no redemption that upholds law, there is no 
remedy that enables us to keep the law. God’s 
holy nature must first be satisfied , before our 
sinful nature can be sanctified. 

As out of unbounded love the Son of God 
suffered in order to work out salvation, such 
a work is nothing but pure merit. The entire 
movement of salvation was a movement of 
righteousness that was extra-legal, and being 
that of an infinite person it had infinite worth. 
The merit of the God-man counterbalances the 
demerit of fallen man , and so there is a com¬ 
plete salvation for all who are willing to be 
saved by free grace. Sinful men have felt 
that merit was needed in order to gain eternal 
life, and many of them have suffered and 
served, hoping to purchase it; but with all 

* Smeaton, “Sayings of Jesus on the Atonement,” p. 142. 


THOUGHTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 127 


tlieir efforts they were not fully satisfied. 
What a relief, then, that infinite merit is found 
in Christ. 

While it is true that men are saved by an 
act of mercy, it is also true that the mercy acts 
through the medium of justice. The judicial 
nature of God having been satisfied by the 
propitiatory sacrifice of his Son, it is now suit¬ 
able and safe for mercy to flow forth to the 
penitent. It is this blending of justice and 
mercy in salvation that makes it fit the soul 
at all points, and lays such a sure foundation 
that the mind can rest upon it with the utmost 
composure. 

Inasmuch as the entire redemptive right¬ 
eousness was for sinners, and not for the God- 
man himself, we see the great wealth which 
belongs to such disinterested action. Christ’s 
one obedience unto death was exceptional and 
extraordinary in the government of God. Al¬ 
though certain actions of men bear a resem¬ 
blance to a vicarious atonement, and in that 
way show that it is not unreasonable, still as 
no accountable creature could ever furnish 
merit so as to save a sinful soul, there is noth¬ 
ing of the same nature as the atonement in 
existence. This very singularity of the divine 
redemption enhances its glory and value, mak¬ 
ing it the wonder of time and eternity. It 


128 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


seems evident also that this unusual scheme 
of salvation must have meanings that we have 
not yet detected and a philosophy that we 
have not yet mastered, and probably never 
will while we remain upon earth. 

“ The Lamb was slain from the foundation 
of the world,” and the world from its founda¬ 
tion points to that slain Lamb. Although 
there is not an “ eternal atonement,” yet the 
atonement is an eternal thought of God. In 
the heart of Infinite Excellence there is a cross, 
but it casts no shadow. The shadow belongs 
to the earth and time, reminding us evermore 
of the great tragedy. All things point to the 
Crucified One. The cross stands in the midst 
of the centuries. The soul and the sky are 
Christological. The great philosophers have 
pointed to it, the march of history has pro¬ 
claimed it, and Scripture has made it the key 
which opens the gates of life. It is seen to¬ 
day in the conflicts of nations, and in the 
hopes of brighter years to come. The child at 
birth has the cross beside it, and when it dies 
the cross is the passport by which it gains 
admittance into heaven. The very angels 
who surround the throne of God have a glory 
because of the cross, and their position is 
surer and their robes finer because they dwell 
in Immanuel’s Land. In the winter nights we 


THOUGHTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 129 

see it among the stars; in the long sum¬ 
mer days it glistens in the clouds; in the 
spring the trees and flowers hold it forth, 
and amid the sadness of autumn hours it 
speaks to us all. The priests and prophets 
and great deliverers of men were all Christo- 
logical. Their faces turned towards Calvary 
and the cross. The God-man stands at the 
summit of life, and “on his head are many 
crowns.” 

HI. MARKED SIGNIFICANCE OF CHRIST’S RESUR¬ 
RECTION. 

Let it be proved that the Lord Jesus did 
not rise from the dead, and at once Christian¬ 
ity falls to the ground, and Christ stands be¬ 
fore the world as an impostor. He declared 
repeatedly that he was to rise from the dead, 
and even stated that this event was to take 
place after three days; but to those who be¬ 
lieved in his Messiahship and to those who 
did not believe the thought was so strange 
that it did not seem to enter into any of their 
minds. His death itself, to say nothing of his 
resurrection, was so utterly contrary to all the 
views of his disciples that it scattered to the 
winds their hopes of the new kingdom, and 
left them completely helpless in the presence 
of their enemies, 


130 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


We will move forward step by step, that the 
matter may strike us just as it is. 

Christ is taken down from the cross by kind 
friends, the body wrapped in linen with spices 
all about it, and then gently laid in the supul- 
chre, the intention being to come again at the 
close of the Sabbath and finish the anointing. 
That anticipated anointing never took place. 
It is well, however, that they were so artless 
in their movements. Nothing is so true as 
love. That no theft of the body might be 
made possible, and that no false report should 
be spread that the Saviour had risen, the 
supulchre is sealed and a band of soldiers 
placed there to watch. This is well, as it 
shuts out all chance of deception. In spite of 
all the care, however, “ The Lord is risen in¬ 
deed.” Peter and John enter the supulchre: 
they are startled: “ For as yet they knew not 
the Scripture, that he must rise again from 
the dead.” The Saviour appears to the apos¬ 
tles at different times and places. He speaks 
to them, eats food in their presence, wants to 
convince them of his identity; thus manifest¬ 
ing great patience with their unbelief. It is 
evident that they will not believe that he has 
risen unless they are compelled to. They are 
not like a jury who are prejudiced in favor of 
the prisoner’s crime; for they are prejudiced 


THOUGHTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 131 


against the Saviour’s resurrection. They are 
in no state to be imposed upon. Christ even 
appears to five hundred brethren at once, so 
that there is no want of witnesses. 

The course of life henceforth of the apostles 
can only be explained by the fixed fact of the 
resurrection. They could no more deny this 
fact than they could deny their own existence. 
It was no theory which they had started and 
wanted people to believe. It was not a dream, 
not a fancy, not an opinion; but it was a 
tangible fact, and was just as certain as the 
rising or setting of the sun. There was no 
such thing therefore as turning aside those wit¬ 
nesses of the risen Lord. They were threat¬ 
ened, persecuted, imprisoned, but this made 
no difference. No kind of treatment could 
make them deny a fact. The most of them 
were even put to death, and thus they sealed 
their testimony with their blood. The first 
Christians were looked upon as obdurate men; 
but their obduracy was that of principle. 
They would do right even if the heavens 
should fall. There was an inspiration about 
their determined faith. Lookers-on were at¬ 
tracted by what they beheld, and became the 
followers of the risen Lord. 

Thus having found the miracle of the resur¬ 
rection, each miracle that Christ wrought, and 


132 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


Christ himself the great miracle, all stand out 
with the distinctness of eternal truth. If there 
is no certainty here, then a lie has been effect¬ 
ual in establishing a kingdom of righteousness. 

IY. MARKED SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FACT THAT 
BIBLICAL THEOLOGY IS PRACTICAL. 

The deepest thoughts of Scripture are not 
mere specimens of philosophy l They are 
philosophical in the highest sense; still as we 
are sinners needing restoration to the image 
of God, the doctrines point to the life. When 
we have that finished statement that “ God is 
a Spirit,” the Divine Being is not left on a far¬ 
away height, where he feels no interest in us, 
but he is brought close to the heart of uni¬ 
versal man, and each one is told that “ they 
that worship him must worship him in spirit 
and in truth” That is a blow struck at formal¬ 
ism and heathenism. Is the doctrine of the 
atonement stated? The practical words meet 
us: “We have redemption through his blood, 
the forgiveness of sins” Is it the resurrection 
of Christ ? “ He was raised again for our jus¬ 
tification” Is it the doctrine of the second 
advent ? “ Watch; for ye know neither the day 
nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” 
Is it the happiness of the future state ? 
“ Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall 


THOUGHTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 133 


see God” Is it the misery of the lost ? “ Fear 
him who is able to destroy both soul and body 
in hell.” Are the high doctrines of foreknowl¬ 
edge and predestination announced ? Quickly 
we are told, “ Whom he did foreknow, he also 
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of 
his Son” We are not to be diverted by the 
transcendent nature of these truths, but we 
are to see that their design is, that we should 
become like Christ. Do we want a philosophy 
of the creation, and a statement of the feeling 
it should awaken in us ? Here are the sublime 
words: “ For of him, and through him, and to 
him, are all things: to whom he glory for ever” 
In the eternal working out of the divine plan 
and the eternal working out of our life, God is 
to be glorified. Even the full meaning of re¬ 
demption is not gained when millions are 
saved by its power. The entire redemptive 
movement is a manifestation of the divine 
glory. We never see any good thing aright, 
unless we see God in every good thing. It is 
certainly the highest kind of practicality when 
the whole scheme of truth leads us to have 
proper feelings and acts with reference to God. 
Even the mysteries of Scripture, and the 
mysteries of creation as well, are of great use 
in teaching us humility, submission, and rever¬ 
ence. 


134 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


Without going farther, it is plain enough 
that the doctrines of the Christian system tend 
to the development of Christian character. 
And this should be noted that the greater the 
number of truths which we can weave into 
our character, the richer we make it. If the 
collective theology of the Bible could be 
wrought into our composition, so that we 
should have feelings to match with every truth, 
then we should be fine specimens of pious men, 
rounded and well balanced. 


CHAPTER III. 


EFFICACY OF CERTAIN HUMAN REMEDIES FOR SIN 
CONTRASTED WITH THE EFFICACY OF THE GREAT 
SALVATION. 

It seems proper to turn aside for a short time 
that we may view the thoughts of men, as they 
stand in opposition to the thoughts of God, 
respecting a way of recovery. The divine 
remedy will suffer no loss by being put in 
contrast with human speculation. There is 
something about sin that is altogether peculiar, 
suggesting the thought that unless the remedy 
is equally peculiar it never can master the evil. 
Whether we make fallen man to be better or 
worse than has been supposed, in either case 
his efforts at self-restoration have failed. Let 
us glance at certain methods of cure which at 
present have a degree of popularity. 

j Education, we are told, will remove all evils 
from the soul. Only educate men, and no 
one will steal, nor defraud, nor set fire to a 
house, nor kill. Just as if all pickpockets 


136 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


were ignorant men. Solomon and Lord Bacon 
were not kept from falling because they were 
superior in knowledge. No doubt education 
is a good thing, and Christian men are greatly 
in favor of it, as seen in the institutions of 
learning which they have started; but it has 
no power to make good the heart of man. If 
education were the great plan of salvation, 
then what we call sin would simply be igno¬ 
rance or error; but we know quite well that 
sin and ignorance are not the' same thing. 
Self-will and covetousness are not ignorance, 
malice and envy are not ignorance, the love 
of ease and the love of evil are not ignorance, 
pride and lawlessness are not ignorance. Sin 
is guilt, and it points to a vicious will and a 
vicious heart. Education may dry up some 
streams even as the sun does in its summer 
march through the sky, yet the great rivers 
flow on to the sea as they have been flowing 
for thousands of years. It is not light, how¬ 
ever clear, that is going to chase depravity 
out of the land. You may have a school in 
every neighborhood, a treatise on science in 
every family, each person filled with knowl¬ 
edge, yet sin will reign. The rougher features 
of evil may be polished and smoothed down 
by education, a few warts of sin cut off here 
and there, ugly sores covered over; and yet 


HUMAN REMEDIES AND THE GREAT SALVATION. 137 

out of sight, in the blood, in the heart, the 
disease has the mastery. 

We are living in what is called an age of 
science, and this science we are told is going 
to revolutionize the whole world of man. 
Suppose then that every person knows the 
exact distance of the heavenly bodies, how 
large they are, when the next eclipse of the 
sun and moon will take place, what light is 
and the law of gravitation, will that knowledge 
destroy sin ? It would be a great comfort if 
it could be destroyed as easy as that. We 
know, however, that it will not be destroyed 
in that way. How is astronomy, and chemis¬ 
try, and geology, and all the sciences combined 
going to root out inward depravity? The 
whole is a bright delusion. There is no con¬ 
nection between the remedy and the disease. 
What has astronomy to do with sin f Can a 
chemist sift out moral evil ? Neither the one 
nor the other meets the difficulty. If you were 
sick would you think it reasonable to send for 
a geologist to come and cure you ? No: you 
would say at once that there is no connection 
between geology and the curing of bodies. In 
like manner there is no connection between a 
knowledge of science and the curing of souls. 
Every man may be transformed into a philos¬ 
opher, but not on that account is every man 


138 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


transformed into a saint. The philosopher 
needs a divine remedy just as truly as the 
most ignorant person needs it. 

It is not education, hut Christ. And it is 
not merely Christ viewed as the Light, hut it 
is Christ as the atoner and possessor of a divine 
life; a life which, introduced into the soul of 
man, breaks up the reign of death. You may 
even give a Bihle to each person, that each 
may study and know what it contains, and yet 
the universal knowledge of the Bihle will not 
make men universally good. You may even 
transport the whole human race to heaven, 
where knowledge is found in perfection, hut 
that heavenly knowledge will not give you a 
race of heavenly men. No, no, all you can say 
about education is, that it is a subordinate 
means. It is good in its place, hut the place 
is not that of purifying souls. There are men 
who even become worse by education, and not 
better. The truth is, there is nothing short 
of a remedial principle direct from Christ that 
can extirpate sin. “ Culture,” says Professor 
Shairp, “ when it will not accept its proper 
place as secondary, but sets up to be the guid¬ 
ing principle of life, forfeits that which might 
be its highest charm. Indeed, even when it 
does not professedly turn its back on faith, 
yet if it claims to be paramount, it will gener- 


HITMAN REMEDIES AND THE GREAT SALVATION. 139 


ally be found that it has cultivated every side of 
man’s nature but the devout one. There is no 
more forlorn sight than that of a man highly 
gifted, elaborately cultivated, with all the other 
capacities of his nature strong and active, but 
those of faith and reverence dormant. And 
this, be it said, is the pattern of man in which 
culture, made the chief good, would most likely 
issue.” * 

2Esthetic discipline is presented as another 
means by which to soften and subdue the 
rough nature of man. The soul must be made 
to face beauty wherever it can be found. The 
works of the great masters must be studied, 
that the mind may be lifted up out of its 
impurity, and made to move in a region of 
“sweetness and light.” Paintings represent¬ 
ing the finest scenes of nature must hang 
around our dwellings, and all the varied crea¬ 
tions of an ethereal imagination must be ever 
present to our view, that we may be moulded 
and transformed by their influence. Statuary 
and architecture and all household arrange¬ 
ments must be chaste and beautiful, that we 
also may be the same. Poetry and music 
must charm and elevate the soul, that thus it 
may reach perfection. 

If aesthetic culture has such power to purify 

* “Culture and Religion,” p. 168. 


140 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


the human spirit, it is strange that a very 
depraved kind of depravity thrives most lust¬ 
ily in the midst of this very culture. Paris 
and Borne have artistic beauty in all its forms, 
but they have also an exceedingly large 
amount of most ugly sin. Taste and world¬ 
liness there go hand in hand together; paint¬ 
ing and pleasure are not far apart; refinement 
and godlessness startle one by their close 
proximity; a beautiful civilization right in 
the midst of moral death. There are cathe¬ 
drals even where art has lavished all its skill, 
and where, if saints could be made, they would 
be made there; and yet formalism bows before 
the most beautiful images, and spirituality 
dies in the midst of music that seems like the 
echo of heavenly choirs. 

Mr. Buskin, who may be considered a judge 
in such matters, uses this language: “A fit of 
unjust anger, petty malice, unreasonable vexa¬ 
tion, or dark passion, cannot certainly, in a 
mind of ordinary sensibility, hold its own in 
the presence of a good engraving from any 
work of Angelico, Memling, or Perugino. But 
I nevertheless believe, that he who trusts much 
to such helps will find them fail him at his 
need; and that the dependence, in any great 
degree, on the presence or power of a picture, 
indicates a wonderfully feeble sense of the 


HUMAN REMEDIES AND THE GREAT SALVATION. 141 


presence and power of God. I do not think 
any man, who is thoroughly certain that Christ 
is in the room, will care what sort of pictures 
of Christ he has on its walls; and in the plu¬ 
rality of cases, the delight taken in art of this 
kind is, in reality, nothing more than a form 
of graceful indulgence of those sensibilities 
which the habits of a disciplined life restrain 
in other directions. Such art is, in a word, 
the opera and drama of the monk. Sometimes 
it is worse than this, and the love of it is the 
mask under which a general thirst for morbid 
excitement will pass itself for religion.” 

Take the sin of impurity —what can aestheti¬ 
cism do in arresting that ? It can do nothing. 
Polished gentlemen can be coarse sensualists. 
If Christianity had brought nothing more to 
the corrupt race of man than the blessing of 
purity, its value would be infinite. The reign¬ 
ing licentiousness is outside of the Christian 
kingdom. Every pagan nation might welcome 
the religion of Christ because of its sanctify¬ 
ing power. Refinement and lewdness were 
mingled together among the Greeks and Ro¬ 
mans when Christianity appeared. “ The lives 
of men of every class, from the highest to the 
lowest, were consumed in the practice of the 
most abominable and flagitious vices: even 
crimes, the horrible turpitude of which was 


142 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


such that it would be defiling the ear of de¬ 
cency but to name them, were openly perpe¬ 
trated with the greatest impunity.” * 

Even when we come to divine art , the art of 
Glod which has no imperfection, does that 
change the character of man at its base ! Are 
the people who live by the Ehine and under 
the clear skies of the Orient, all pure and 
peaceful ? There are flowers and birds of gay 
plumage and golden sunsets and heavenly 
landscapes, yet the men who live in the pres¬ 
ence of these are not heavenly. Even canni¬ 
bals live upon islands that seem like the islands 
of the blest, with no transforming power reach¬ 
ing them through all the centuries of their 
history. ^Esthetic agencies viewed as second¬ 
ary are good in their place; but to reckon 
upon them as having power to charm sin out 
of the soul, is a vain and fruitless expectation. 
Not even a sight of the land of Glod will make 
a man godly. 

Free government is now recommended as the 
power that will set all things right. The evils 
that affect society are supposed to be govern¬ 
mental evils. The organic system must there¬ 
fore be remodeled. Just what is wanted is 
not always clear to the minds of those who 

* Mosheim, “ Commentaries on the Affairs of Christians 
before the Time of Constantine,” vol. i., p. 26, 


HUMAN REMEDIES AND THE GREAT SALVATION. 143 

would revolutionize the existing state of 
things. They only know that they want to 
live in an easier way. The distinctions of rich 
and poor they do not believe in. The entire 
political system ought to be so shaped and 
managed that every man will have an abun¬ 
dance, and so will be contented and happy. A 
government that is simple, free, and for all 
alike, will do away with the evils that afflict 
mankind. While some would utterly destroy 
law, government, and God, leaving nothing 
but a rampant individualism, the more moder¬ 
ate adopt the above plan. 

This view, like most of the views of men, 
has a degree of truth in it. No doubt a free 
government, instead of one that is oppressive, 
would be a good thing, just as universal educa¬ 
tion and aestheticism would be good things. 
But to suppose that a free government will 
give us a republic of truth, goodness, and 
happiness, is nothing but a dream. It may be 
easier to live, and one may have more ad¬ 
vantages under one kind of government than 
under another, but as to expelling sin and in¬ 
troducing holiness, no government can do that. 
Apart from all organic systems, the human 
soul is astray; and any process of outward 
machinery, however complete, will never re¬ 
store man to his God. The despotism of 


144 GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 

human nature is the chief despotism. He only 
is free who is made such by Christ. 

The idea seems to float in certain minds 
that good circumstances will make a man good. 
The thing cannot be done. We see persons 
under the best circumstances who are still 
vicious and miserable, and then again we see 
persons under the worst circumstances who 
are good and happy. It is the heart that 
makes the man, the conscience that makes the 
man, the will that makes that man; and if the 
heart, conscience, and will are right, why, the 
man will be right anywhere; but if they are 
wrong, he will be wrong anywhere. Place a 
wise and good man under a despotism, and he 
will be a wise and good man still; and place a 
villain under the best government upon earth, 
and he will be a villain still. 

It is certainly desirable to have a good gov¬ 
ernment, quite desirable to have all the cir¬ 
cumstances of our being as perfect as possible, 
yet let every man know that even if these ends 
were realized, man would still be selfish; he 
would still need a Divine Saviour. It is not, 
then, the gospel of human freedom that is 
going to restore the lost paradise; the Gospel 
of Christ can alone do that. The grand thought 
of the Christian redemption is that it is de¬ 
signed to leaven the whole mass of society; 


HUMAN REMEDIES AND THE GREAT SALVATION. 145 


touching souls, families, communities, and 
nations; reforming laws and institutions; 
extending more and more a new divine atmos¬ 
phere ; more and more a new divine life. This 
method makes no show. It simply moves on 
like the silent steps of God. But like God it 
conquers. 

The moral law is next viewed as the royal 
way to perfection. We admit that a species 
of moral excellence can be gained by the disci¬ 
pline of law. But it must be distinctly under¬ 
stood that a merely moral character lacks the 
tone of a character that is holy. There is a 
great difference between an act that springs 
from the natural conscience, and an act that 
springs from the regenerate heart. Love is 
found in the latter, but not in the former. 
The best we can say is simply this, that the 
moral man tries to do right at the very time 
he has a fixed preference for sin. The soul 
is divided against itself, and so the morality 
does not possess pure singleness. The high¬ 
est degree of moral development fails to start 
life in a dead nature. It is far from true that 
virtue is the angel that moves the waters, so 
that whosoever enters in after that is healed 
of whatsoever disease he had. Law is simply 
a rule of holy action, and has no power to 
enable a man to perform the action that is re- 


146 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


quired. A command can neither destroy the 
love of wickedness, nor generate the love of 
goodness. 

Suppose, however, a man does believe that 
he can worry sin to death and can become 
perfect in holiness. He may adopt the fol¬ 
lowing method. He makes a fixed purpose in 
the morning that he will not cherish a wrong 
feeling nor perform a wrong act throughout 
the day. Does he succeed? No. He repeats 
the same effort day after day for a week. How 
does he come out ? The whole is a complete 
failure. Perhaps a pretended friend has plun¬ 
dered his wealth and blackened his character. 
Does he heartily forgive him? He finds he 
cannot do that. He tries, however, to swing 
round the mind by the aid of the best motive. 
He says, I will do right just because it is right. 
Does he now love Gfod with all the heart, soul, 
mind, and strength, and his neighbor as him¬ 
self ? Far from it. Not willing to be defeated, 
he fastens his eye on the Perfect Man and tries 
hard and long to be like him. He leaves 
the bright vision in a state of imperfection, 
feeling that he seems worse than he was 
before. 

The fact is, when the claims of the law are 
pressed upon the soul the depraved nature is 
aroused, instead of mastered, and the man 


HUMAN REMEDIES AND THE GREAT SALVATION. 147 


discovers that “ when he would do good, evil 
is present with him.” So long as a human 
being is not troubled by conscience the de¬ 
praved nature sleeps. In that state of sleep 
the person can easily imagine that he is good 
instead of bad. The ministry of the ten com¬ 
mandments is simply a ministry of condemna¬ 
tion. The more one beholds their breadth and 
spirituality the more he beholds his wicked¬ 
ness. Instead of being nerved to holy action 
by them, there is a touch of despair, and he 
sadly exclaims, “ How to perform that which 
is good I find not.” Many passages from 
heathen writers illustrate this kind of experi¬ 
ence. Ovid says, “ If I could, I would be more 
sane. But some unknown force drags me 
against my will. Desire draws me one way, 
conviction another. I see the better and ap¬ 
prove, the worse I follow.” Seneca says, “ Our 
corrupt nature has drunk in such deep 
draughts of iniquity, which are so far incor¬ 
porated in its very bowels, that you cannot 
remove it, save by tearing them out. No man 
is able to clear himself; let some one give him 
a hand, let some one lead him out.” 

The conclusion we reach is this, that unless 
a supernatural influence is brought to bear 
upon the fallen soul, it is doomed. The chief 
want of that soul is spiritual power . Every 


148 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


human being possesses a great amount of 
power of a certain kind. The collective works 
of unregenerate man show that power. Mind 
from its nature is power. Not a single faculty 
of the mind has been lost by sin. The chief 
difficulty, however, with the faculties is, that 
they are set wrong by sin. They cannot act 
in a proper way with reference to divine things 
because sin is a state of mind. There is spirit¬ 
ual incapacity and an unconverted habit. The 
supreme preference is set upon secondary ob¬ 
jects, and not upon the Supreme Object. Be¬ 
ing thus conditioned by one’s own love and 
choice, and not by any forced necessity, there 
is no such thing as change by self-power. No 
man can make the darkened mind to see God, 
the depraved heart to love God, the unwilling 
will to obey God. A soul that is self-centred 
cannot regenerate itself. If man is to escape 
from evil, help must come from without. There 
is hope and help. “ The gospel is th q power of 
God unto salvation to every one that be- 
lieveth.” Supernatural influence is the one 
thing which distinguishes the religion of God 
from the religions of men. In the Incarnate 
Saviour is a fund of remedial power, and this 
is communicated to souls by the Divine 
Spirit. The supernatural works in various 
ways. It enlightens the mind and makes it 


HUMAN REMEDIES AND THE GREAT SALVATION. 149 


receptive. It convinces and restrains, cheers 
and strengthens, is a holy quality and a life 
from G-od. There is grace before conver¬ 
sion, grace in conversion, and grace after 
conversion. 


CHAPTER IY. 


CERTITUDE OF THAT RELIGION WHICH SPRINGS 
FROM THE GREAT SALVATION. 

I do not refer here to religion viewed as a 
system, but to religion viewed as a life, and 
that life as coming from the great Life-giver, 
the divine-human Saviour. This religion must 
speak for itself without any labored argument. 
Having seen what it is, we can judge accord¬ 
ingly. Our demands with reference to religion 
must not be too high, as man is a fallen being. 
Time and training are necessary. The ideal 
will not be realized at once. The great point 
is whether the principles of Christianity meet 
the sinful state of human nature. As every¬ 
thing can be counterfeited in this life, we have 
counterfeit Christians. It is not fair to take 
such as samples of the religion of Christ. Let 
us look at the reality, and let us be impartial 
when once we see it. 

We shall present the elements of religion, 
and it will be seen that if man is ever to be¬ 
come a holy being these elements must remain 
just as they are. 


CERTITUDE OF RELIGION VIEWED AS A LIFE. 151 


1. There is a feeling of need. Although this 
feeling is antecedent to religion, and in certain 
circumstances may never lead to it, yet when¬ 
ever religion begins, the feeling of need is 
there. Let indifference prevail, and the soul 
is lost. The worldly cannot be spiritual. Sat¬ 
isfaction with selfishness is dissatisfaction with 
God. The sense of need shows that things are 
beginning to be seen as they are. The one¬ 
sided life is breaking up. The highest 
thoughts are entering the mind and impressing 
it. There is a sense of danger, a thirst to be 
quenched, a want to be filled, a feeling of 
weakness and a desire for help. There is 
weariness and unrest, and a kind of experience 
that cannot very well be expressed. All the 
faculties of the mind are at work: the intellect 
is facing stern facts, the memory is looking 
over the dark past, the conscience is eyeing 
the troubled future, the heart is ruffled with 
varied emotions, the apostate will is struggling 
with its chain. The man looks towards salva¬ 
tion—wants it—prays. Even the body is 
affected by the ministry of need, and sleepless 
hours betoken its presence. No thoughtful 
person can affirm that the above experience is 
unsuitable. As a preparatory means it is just 
what is wanted. 

2. Repentance. This implies a fundamental 


152 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


change of character. Sin is admitted, felt, and 
condemned. It is hated because it is hateful, 
and not merely because of the evil that flows 
from it. Sin as a whole is hated. If select 
sins are loved, how can the bad ever become 
good? Grief now arises because we have 
sinned and because of the inward depravity 
which clings to the soul. The grief implies 
that we have a wish that the sin had not been, 
and that we would make amends for it if we 
could; yet deeply conscious that we never can 
blot it out. The penitent kneels at the foot 
of the cross, and the blood of the Saviour 
drops down upon him and washes away his 
sin. The tear in the eye is not only expressive 
of sorrow for the past, but of hope for the fu¬ 
ture : the night ends in the day. The penitent 
man therefore turns from sin, having a fixed 
determination to live for holiness, looking to 
God for pardon and strength. The important 
feature here is, that we have “repentance 
towards God? and not merely confession or 
restitution made to man. We view the Su¬ 
preme Being as the Head of a moral govern¬ 
ment and Judge of all accountable creatures, 
and that he cannot pardon unless we repent. 
The stern reality stands out —repentance or 
perdition. To suppose that a God of holiness 
would remit punishment while we have a fixed 


CERTITUDE OF RELIGION VIEWED AS A LIFE. 153 


preference for sin, would be to offer a universal 
license to evil, annihilating Giod and his king¬ 
dom at the same time. Thus it is evident 
upon principles of right and reason that no 
man can attain to righteousness unless he 
repents. 

3. Faith. This is one of the most expressive 
characteristics of the Christian religion, and it 
does not appear that there is any other act of 
the mind that can take its place. Feeling that 
we are absolutely lost, we depend absolutely 
upon the Redeemer. Our surrender to him 
is unconditional; it is for time and eternity. 
Faith is complex in its nature, and is the out¬ 
come of the leading faculties of the soul. The 
intellect assents to the truth of a divine re¬ 
demption, the heart goes out in penitence to 
the Redeemer, and the will trusts in him as 
the only way to be saved. Faith has every 
requisite as a condition. By it we are justified, 
and thus have the law on our side; by it we 
are united to God, and thus are perfectly safe. 
There is no virtue but that is touched by its 
power, and no truth of the mind that does not 
feel its influence. It works many a time when 
we know it not, and is so blessed as never to 
cast a shadow upon the soul. As a source of 
inspiration it is like the air of heaven, and as 
a principle of action it never can die. To be 


154 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


without faith is to he without Giod. Unbelief 
shuts the door of mercy, and faith opens it 
and leads the soul into the presence of the 
King. 

4. Love . Christianity is the religion of the 
burning heart. Faith is rooted and grounded 
in love. These two graces appear at the same 
time: they are Siamese twins. Love as a 
governing power does not exist in the natural 
heart of man. When the soul left God the 
spiritual tie was sundered, and ever since that 
time he has been living a mere human life. 
Feelings suited to earthly relationships are at 
work, but the master passion is not there. 
When man went out of Eden with a sigh he 
brought flowers with him: they still grow in 
the garden of the soul. Hence we behold 
parental affection, brotherly and sisterly love, 
the tear of sympathy, eagerness to help men 
in peril, benevolence extended to those in 
want, and gratitude because of it, friendship 
that binds kindred spirits, and patriotism that 
does not end in glory. These are all beautiful; 
but better and more beautiful they would be 
if divine love was among them. Love is the 
heart of religion, and religion is the heart of 
love. “I love,” says Mrs. Isabella Graham, 
“ to feel the kindlings of repentance, self-loath¬ 
ing under a sense of ingratitude, heart-melting 


CERTITUDE OF RELIGION VIEWED AS A LIFE. 155 


with the view of pardoning grace. I love to 
feel the sprinkling of my Bedeemer’s blood on 
my conscience, drawing forth the tears of joy 
and gratitude in the view of free pardon. I 
love to dwell on the seal of reconciliation, 
while my heart, glowing with gratitude, sinks 
into the arms of my redeeming Lord, in full 
confidence of his love and my safety forever. 
I love to feel longings after closer communion, 
after more conformity to his image, more use¬ 
fulness to my fellow-members of the body of 
Christ, and to all his creatures. I love to feel 
deeply interested in the success of the Gospel, 
in the declarative glory of Jehovah, as mani¬ 
fested in his works of creation and providence, 
but chiefly in the superexcellent work of re¬ 
demption.” * 

The love of Christianity takes its type from 
the love of Christ. It is the love of self-sacri¬ 
fice. It is redemptive in its mission, godlike in 
its quality, and a distinctively new power in 
the world of man. As a controlling element in 
the development of character, there is none like 
it. It can be brought to bear upon every evil 
habit and upon every virtue of the soul. There 
is no principle that has such a universality of 
influence as love. “ God is love.” Law is love. 
Salvation is love. Beligion is love. One does 

* “Lite,” p. 142. 


156 GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 

not need a thousand commands in order to 
perform a thousand duties; the one command 
of love is sufficient. If there were not a single 
statute, court, or prison in the land, the good 
man would he good by the simple supremacy 
of a pure affection. There is no instrument 
with which to work in well-doing that is so 
easy and pleasant to handle as love. Let the 
soul have the love of complacency and good¬ 
will, and it may go anywhere and do anything. 
Love sparkles all through the New Testament. 
It shines like a sun in the Fourth Gospel, and 
no gem of pagan literature can equal the 
thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. When 
Love died on the cross the climax was reached. 

5. Obedience. The experience that has been 
stated thus far, constitutes a new form of life. 
There is a new drift to the soul and a new 
ultimate end. The tone or spirit of the life 
may be called Christly and godly, because it 
springs from Christ and goes out to God. Let 
any man examine the experience of Paul after 
his conversion and his experience before it, 
and the one will be seen to be as different from 
the other as the light is from darkness. Com¬ 
pare the “ Confessions ” of Augustine with the 
“Confessions” of Rousseau, and you notice 
that the atmosphere which surrounds the one 
is that of purity, while the atmosphere that 


CERTITUDE OF RELIGION VIEWED AS A LIFE. 157 


surrounds the other is utterly corrupt. Let a 
veritable Christian and a moralist sit down 
and attempt to converse with each other on 
the searching and spiritual phases of a relig¬ 
ious life, and it will be seen at once that the 
moral man does not feel at ease in facing such 
matters. There is in fact no affinity between 
the two persons. The habitude of the soul in 
each is different. 

Just notice the experience of President 
Edwards as described by himself. He says: 
“ There came into my soul, and as it were 
diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the 
Divine Being; a new sense, quite different 
from anything I ever experienced before. I 
began to have a new kind of apprehensions 
and ideas of Christ, and the work of redemp¬ 
tion, and the glorious way of salvation by him. 
An inward sweetness of these things came 
into my mind; and my soul was led away in 
pleasant views and contemplations of them. 
And my mind was greatly engaged to spend 
my time in reading and meditating on Christ, 
on the beauty and excellency of his person, 
and the lovely way of salvation by free grace 
in him. The appearance of everything was 
altered; there seemed to be a calm sweet cast 
or appearance of divine glory, in almost every¬ 
thing. God’s excellency, his wisdom, his pu- 


158 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


rity and love, seemed to appear in everything; 
in the sun, and moon, and stars; in the clouds 
and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, and trees; 
in the water, and all nature; which used 
greatly to fix my mind. I had vehement long¬ 
ings of soul after God and Christ, and after 
more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to 
be full. Prayer seemed to be natural to me, 
as the breath by which the inward burnings of 
my heart had vent.” * Now, considering that 
Edwards had a highly cultivated mind, we may 
receive his experience as that of a true man. 

When the life unfolds itself in obedience to 
God during a course of years and under all 
circumstances, it presents testimony in favor 
of religion which the most sceptical are com¬ 
pelled to admire. Christian principle acted 
out in the forms of strict justice, truthfulness, 
and benevolence, commends itself to every 
man’s conscience in the sight of God. The 
examples of Schwartz the missionary and 
Howard the philanthropist will never fade 
from the memories of men. The life that is 
an imitation of Christ is life indeed. There is 
both pathos and power in the words of Jesus 
—“ If ye love me, ye will keep my command¬ 
ments.” (New Yersion.) If the love is certain, 
the obedience will be certain. The amount of 

* “Life of Edwards,” prefixed to his Works, pp. 16, 17. 


CERTITUDE OF RELIGION VIEWED AS A LIFE. 159 


our self-denial in the service of Christ shows 
the amount of our love. Our death for him is 
life. 

Such are the constituent elements of the 
religion of Christ. There must be a feeling of 
need if man is to escape from himself. Char¬ 
acter cannot be changed from evil to good 
unless one repents. The Saviour cannot help 
me if I do not believe in him. The claims of 
God never can be met unless I love. A life 
of obedience is the good fruit which springs 
from the good tree, and is its own evidence. 
No one can say that there is anything arbi¬ 
trary about these requirements. If a man 
were told to leap from a precipice in order to 
become holy, the means would not be adapted 
to the end. The method of God fits precisely 
the case of the fallen soul. It is adapted to 
the old and the young, the ignorant and the 
educated, the greatest sinner and the least. 
It applies to universal man in all the circum¬ 
stances of his being. As sin never loses its 
quality by reason of any refinements of civili¬ 
zation, so the method of cure never changes. 
In all the developments of the future there 
will not appear any new Christ nor any new 
Christianity. 

The religion of Christ as to its essence is as 
old as the creation. The Bible reveals differ- 


160 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


ent dispensations, rites, and ceremonies; there 
were degrees of light and degrees of progress 
because of it; but in all the changes the ele¬ 
ments of religion cannot change. The Old 
Testament saints felt their need, repented, 
believed, loved, and obeyed, just like the saints 
of the New Testament. In whatever country, 
at whatever time, any man has these charac¬ 
teristics he will be saved. The religion of Grod 
is one . There cannot be two religions, just as 
there cannot be two kinds of straight lines or 
two kinds of circles. The fact is, there is but 
one religion for the entire universe. Let the 
remedial features of the Christian religion be 
stripped off, as they will be in time, then we 
have pure hatred of sin and trust in Grod, pure 
love and obedience to all his requirements. 
The unfallen angels and the saints who have 
been rescued from sin keep the same law and 
worship the same Grod forever. 

This religion is no fancy or speculation; it 
is a fact in the conscious experience of millions 
of men. If consciousness can be appealed to 
as a true witness of that wh* li is passing in 
the mind, then it can be appealed to as a true 
witness of piety in the heart. Here are a mul¬ 
titude of people who affirm that their disposi¬ 
tion to evil has been changed, so that they 
now love that which they once hated, and hate 


CERTITUDE OF RELIGION VIEWED AS A LIFE. 161 

that which they once loved. Why should we 
not believe these persons? Thousands of 
them have well-balanced minds. Are they all 
deluded ? Yea, are all the pious men from the 
beginning to the present time deceived in re¬ 
gard to their religious thoughts, emotions, and 
purposes? They tell us that their religion 
brought peace and joy to their souls, such as 
they never had before, and that not even the 
most tormenting death could tempt them to 
forsake their God and Saviour; must all this 
evidence go for nothing, simply because a few 
sceptics say it is nothing? That will not 
answer; that would not be reasonable. Truth 
cannot be made error, right cannot be made 
wrong, by any mere say so. We are perfectly 
willing to admit that persons have been de¬ 
ceived, just as persons have been deceived 
about every great matter, but to affirm that 
the whole sum of godliness in the world is 
nothing, is in fact sheer delusion and hypoc¬ 
risy—that kind of unbelief really kills itself, 
and is an utter shame to any man who has it. 

Let us suppose that every human being has 
truly adopted the religion of the Son of God, 
and that that religion is acted out in the way 
the Master intended. What a blessed state of 
things would be the result! Love is mani¬ 
fested in all the spheres of life. There is no 


162 GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 

injustice between man and man. Every word 
spoken is true. Crimes are not known any¬ 
where. Court-houses and prisons belong to 
the past. In no dwelling is found a lock and 
a key: there is none to molest or to make 
afraid. There are no wars: peace reigns. 
There are no slanders and contentions, no 
jealousies and envies. Wherever you go you 
meet a friend. Love sparkles in every eye and 
glows in every countenance. Holiness is 
written upon every instrument that is plied 
by the busy hand of man. All the arts and 
sciences and civilizations are carried forward 
in love. Education is marked with righteous¬ 
ness. No book is ever printed that is inju¬ 
rious to old or young. The whole world of 
literature and the whole world of mind are in 
a state of health. The very sky seems lovelier 
than before; the mountains have about them 
a serene majesty; the rivers may be called the 
rivers of Grod; the birds sing with a sweeter 
song; the infant plays with the asp; there is 
nothing to hurt or destroy. Can principles 
that work out in this way be bad? Can the 
Christian religion be false when this earth 
would be heaven if it were acted out? The argu¬ 
ment speaks for itself to every fair-minded man. 

Thus Christianity solves the problem of life; 
that problem which has puzzled all minds. 


CERTITUDE OF RELIGION VIEWED AS A LIFE. 163 


The philosophy of history is seen in the fact, 
that “ God is in Christ, reconciling the world 
unto himself.” There is a great kingdom of 
redemption. It centres in the God-man. The 
kingdom is co-extensive with human time. 
All regenerate souls are subjects of it. Prog¬ 
ress is neither straight forward nor straight 
upward, but antithetic and spiral. Deliver¬ 
ance from sin and misery is the end. History 
is redemptive. Let redemption be removed, 
and the world is without meaning. We are 
living in the midst of a redemptive system, 
and know not what it has done for us. Notice 
a few of its favors. 

When Christ appeared the world was almost 
given over to idolatry; the Jews and a few 
others being the exception. But to-day 
Europe, America, and parts of Asia and Africa, 
have the doctrine of one God . The gain in 
this particular is infinite. Mark also the 
millions who possess the Bible. It is trans¬ 
lated into the chief languages of mankind. 
The entire world will soon possess it. The in¬ 
fluence of this one Book of the one God can¬ 
not be measured. The Sabbath is another 
blessing of salvation. It lays an arrest on 
human selfishness, turns the attention of the 
soul towards God, makes one to think of eter¬ 
nity, tests character, and is a powerful means 


164 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


of sustaining the Christian religion. Immor¬ 
tality has also come to us as a fact, and in con¬ 
nection with it the resurrection of the dead; 
thus teaching us that man in his duplex nature 
is to exist forever. Still further, we should 
realize that the redemptive economy has been 
lifting up individuals and nations upon a 
higher plane of moral life than is common to 
people in heathen lands. Let one live for a 
generation, not among savages, hut in China 
or India, and he will see the vast difference 
that there is between pagan life and Christian 
life. We should be impressed also with the 
fact that the Christian view of the great system 
of things is just the opposite of the sceptical' 
view. We behold a Divine Being and a divine 
creation, a divine law and a divine govern¬ 
ment, a Divine Ruler and a Divine Judge, a 
divine incarnation, and a divine redemption. 
The ultimate end of the great system of things 
is the glory of Grod. Nothing could be higher 
and better than this. 

If Christianity now is false, then we are in 
the midst of darkness and despair. But it is 
not false. The grandest movement in history 
is the religion of Giod. That it has moved 
along slowly is true, but this is because sin is 
such a fearful evil. The mystery of sin and 
the mystery of the will go together, and no 


CERTITUDE OF RELIGION VIEWED AS A LIFE 165 


man thus far has sounded the depths of the 
one or the depths of the other. Christianity 
is for all, but all do not want it. The blame 
is not with Christianity, but with those who 
reject it. Even the imperfect nature of good 
men is no argument against salvation. There 
is power enough in salvation to make every 
man holy, but the unwilling will stands in the 
way. Religion, however, is spreading. The 
nations that wield the greatest power at pres¬ 
ent are the Christian nations. England and 
America, with others following, are sending 
the Glospel into all lands. The English-speak¬ 
ing people, to all appearance, are to be the 
leaders of the future. The time will not be 
long before more persons will speak the Eng¬ 
lish language than will speak any other. 
English will be the language of trade and 
commerce, of law and government, of science 
and civilization, of philosophy and religion. 
As Christianity has travelled from East to 
West, the United States has a historic position 
of great responsibility. Persons are living 
who will see a population here of two hun¬ 
dred millions. With business and freedom 
consecrated to Glod the world can be con¬ 
quered. The present is the age of preparation: 
the future is the age of triumph. To live in 
this day is an inspiration. 


CHAPTER V. 


GKEAT INDIGNATION. 

All actions, whether right or wrong, should 
awaken in us feelings that are suitable to 
them. Indifference in regard to good and 
evil is moral death. There are holy actions 
that should kindle in us admiration, love, and 
thankfulness; and there are sinful actions that 
should start grief, hatred, and indignation. 
The feeling of indignation is of great value as 
a constituent of character. It gives tone and 
power to character for which nothing else can 
be substituted. Its very sternness braces up 
the soul even as a cold day braces up the body. 
The difference between a man with righteous 
indignation and a man without it, is just like 
the difference of two human constitutions, the 
one of which is affected by the temperate zone 
and the other by the torrid. The man who 
lives near the equator will be enfeebled by the 
enfeebling nature of the climate, while he 
who lives in the north is trained by a vigorous 
climate to a vigorous life. 


GREAT INDIGNATION. 


167 


Indignation is neither high temper nor 
revenge. The quality of spite or malice is 
not in it. Pure indignation is hatred of wrong 
as wrong, and it springs forth from a sound 
conscience and a sound heart. There is in the 
feeling a judicial element. It is felt that the 
transgressor of law should suffer. 

In Scripture we have the sentence, “ Be ye 
angry, and sin not.” It is implied in this that 
there is an anger which may he exercised 
without sin. Suppose a man desires to gain 
your vote and influence by offering you a 
bribe, should you not frown upon that man 
with strong marks of indignation ? Suppose 
also that an individual is making efforts to 
lead your daughter into a life of impurity, 
would not a flame of holy wrath flash forth 
against such a man! Certainly one can be 
angry, and yet not sin. Not to be angry in 
such cases would itself be sin. Those that 
love the Lord are commanded to “hate evil” 
No compromise is to be made with evil; it is 
not to be softened, not to be excused, but 
hated. 

Behold the indignation of God. See how 
he swept away the entire ancient world with 
a flood, with the exception of eight persons; 
how he rained down fire and brimstone upon 
the guilty cities of the plain; how he drowned 


168 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


the host of the Egyptians in the Eed Sea. 
The Bible has many passages relating to the 
wrath of God. We read of his “ fierce anger,” 
that he is “a consuming fire,” and that he 
“will by no means clear the guilty.” The 
moral indignation of God startles us in the 
midst of our indifference. It is because his 
purity is so pure, his love so transcendent, 
that his entire nature rises against sin. “ The 
God of the selfish heart is the deity of senti¬ 
mentalism; the God of the imagination and 
the taste is the beautiful Grecian Apollo; the 
God of the understanding merely is the cold 
and unemotional abstraction of the deist and 
the pantheist; but the God of the conscience 
is the living and holy God of Israel,—the God 
of punishments and atonements.” * 

See the indignation of the prophets. They 
guarded the sanctuary of truth with greater 
faithfulness than the priests. A holy fire 
bursts forth from their soul in the presence of 
impiety. Moses beholding the worshippers of 
the golden calf is so excited with indignation 
that he casts the tables of stone out of his 
hands and breaks them. Elijah aroused by 
the manifestations of God and the movements 
of the prophets of Baal orders them to be slain. 
Isaiah witnessing the prevailing wickedness, 

* Shedd, in Biblioth. Sacra, vol. xvi., p. 730. 


GREAT INDIGNATION. 


169 


exclaims, “ How is the faithful city become a 
harlot! Thy princes are rebellious, and com¬ 
panions of thieves.” Jeremiah driven to a 
kind of desperation, says, “ Run ye to and fro 
through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, 
and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, 
if ye can find a man” A real man could not 
be found. The thoughts of the minor proph¬ 
ets flame out as a fire at midnight. “The 
Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries. 
The chariots shall rage in the streets, they 
shall jostle one against another in the broad 
ways, they shall seem like torches, they shall 
run like lightnings.” 

Consider the indignation of the imprecatory 
psalms. “ In the palace of Grod’s truth these 
psalms hang like a sword upon the wall: in 
times of peace we make idle criticisms upon 
its workmanship and idle theories as to its 
use; sound the trumpet of danger, and we 
instantly grasp it—it is all that we have be¬ 
tween us and death. In the day of prosperity 
these psalms seem useless, in the darkness of 
affliction they are luminous; as a piece of fire¬ 
works has no prominence in the day-time, but 
it is the splendor and illumination of the night. 
There are times when the Christian is not to 
blame for having the spirit of these psalms. 
Resentment becomes the holiest of instincts 


170 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


when it resents the proper object. With won¬ 
derful wisdom the Bible provides, not only 
for man’s present, but for his future emergen¬ 
cies, as the earth is stored with mine after 
mine which successive ages shall open. These 
psalms have a 4 springing and germinant ful¬ 
filment ’; every throe and struggle of humanity 
comments upon them, and each generation of 
mankind penetrates further into their mean¬ 
ing. Think not that any truth is useless; the 
rolling wheel of time shall at length come 
upon it.” * 

Mark the indignation of Christ. That he 
was meek, gentle, and of the utmost tender¬ 
ness, is evident; and yet how he comes with 
a crash upon certain of the wicked of his time. 
44 Ye serpents, generation of vipers, how can 
ye escape the damnation of hell.” He tells 
the Scribes and Pharisees that they were 
44 hypocrites,” that they 44 devoured the houses 
of widows,” and that they made their disciples 
44 twofold more the children of hell than them¬ 
selves.” We are told that on a certain occasion 
Christ looked round upon his audience 44 with 
anger, being grieved because of the hard¬ 
ness of their hearts.” Grief and wrath moved 
him. This will be the way with every nature 
that is Christlike. When the wicked will not 

* Smith, Bible Diet., vol. iii., p. 2628. American ed. 


GREAT INDIGNATION. 


171 


yield mercy retires, and justice strikes the 
blow. 

There are states of mind which impede the 
working of pure indignation. The excessive 
love of quietness is one of these states. There 
are persons who want peace at whatever ex¬ 
pense it. may be bought. They seem to think 
that whatever terminates in peace must be 
good, and whatever terminates in commotion 
must be bad. They forget the statement of 
Christ: “ I came not to send peace on earth, 
but a sword.” In a world where we have the 
kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, 
there must be conflict. To extract the energy 
out of indignation by the intense craving for 
quietness, is to make the soul incapable of 
great moral action. Hatred of wrong and love 
of right press a man ahead, that he may lessen 
the one and extend the other. The heroic 
element is kept alive by moral indignation. 
Conflict in itself is not pleasing, but it is neces¬ 
sary. To shun the troubles that are incident 
to the march of righteousness for the sake of 
peace, is to cast contempt on him who bought 
us with his own precious blood. Spurious 
peace is nothing but selfishness. To testify 
against evil is not to its liking; to rebuke the 
transgressor is deemed unwise. 

A mistaken idea of love is also a hindrance to 


172 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


the working of pure indignation. Love has 
been eulogized to such an extent for a number 
of years that it has lost its identity to a certain 
class of minds. It has been resolved into a 
kind of indiscriminate good nature; and the 
result is, that the wicked are much pleased 
with such a friendly power that can shelter 
them. Principles of forgiveness which Christ 
gave for the regulation of private life have been 
applied to public life; thus losing sight of law 
and government, justice and punishment. 
Carry out such love to its natural results, and 
it would sweep away every vestige of authority 
from the nation and the world. 

Still further, the fear of man impedes the 
working of indignation. Let a person be 
influenced by this motive, and he is afraid to 
take a stand against evils that are around him. 
If sin is spoken against, it is done in a general 
way. The good-will of certain individuals 
must not be lost. Everything is trimmed and 
turned in view of what persons will think, 
and feel, and say. Manliness is thus taken 
out of the soul, and moral courage departs. 
Fear of offending a holy G-od, drops down into 
fear of offending a sinful man. Love of truth 
for truth’s sake is crippled. There can be 
nothing of the prophetic fire in the soul when 
one is controlled by mere human opinion. To 


GREAT INDIGNATION. 


173 


have proper feelings touching sin and holiness, 
the soul must be allowed to work in the midst 
of pure moral forces. Outside pressure must 
be shut out, and forgetting the frowns and 
favors of men the Gfod-directed spirit must 
travel along the even line of goodness, deter¬ 
mined to do right whatever may happen. 

Let us mark off now certain persons against 
whom moral indignation should especially be 
directed. The fraudulent and dishonest men 
in common business, the speculating and 
plundering officials who stand at the head of 
moneyed institutions, those who enrich them¬ 
selves by publishing sensational novels and 
obscene papers, should be made to tremble by 
a sharp blast of indignation. Think of bad 
men in public life. Their influence is more 
extended because of their public position, and 
so our indignation must be proportioned to 
that influence. Instead of being shielded by 
their rank in society, that very fact ought to 
render their wickedness doubly abhorrent. 
Suppose that the men connected with the 
judicial affairs of the nation are turning aside 
the principles of justice, should not the moral 
sense of the people rise up against them, and 
they be hurled from their place f The system 
of law in a community lies at the very founda¬ 
tion of human welfare. When that is weak- 


174 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


ened, all is weakened. The cause of the friend¬ 
less finds no defender, and the daring criminal 
no punisher. The finest and purest minds are 
needed in the practice of law. The judge and 
the advocate should be men whose only opin¬ 
ion is the expression of right, and whose only 
business is to see that all have their due. 
Arguments based on sophistry should not 
venture to draw near to this sacred shrine. A 
false plea shaped with great art for so much 
pay is an abomination. There are evils here 
and there that ought to stir the public con¬ 
science and awaken the public indignation. 
“Judge righteously” should be printed in 
golden capitals on the walls of every court¬ 
room in the land. 

When the men who represent the people in 
the state or national legislature are seen to 
inculcate false principles, and when the love 
of money and the love of power express the 
leading drift of their minds, they should 
awaken strong indignation. The man who 
rules in the fear of God is to be honored, while 
the scheming and self-seeking person is to be 
contemned. If the highest office in the land 
is filled by one who sets at defiance human 
and divine law, the moral wrath of the entire 
nation should burst forth against such wicked¬ 
ness. Let any one read the life of Henry* the 


GREAT INDIGNATION. 


175 


Eighth of England, and he will see the fearful 
length to which a ruler can go in sin. If the 
“ violence, cruelty, profusion, rapacity, injus¬ 
tice, obstinacy, arrogance, bigotry, and pre¬ 
sumption,” of that prince, do not excite the 
soul to a high pitch of indignation, that soul 
must be twice dead. It is the remark of Sir 
James Mackintosh that “ Henry, perhaps, 
approached as nearly to the ideal standard of 
perfect wickedness, as the infirmities of human 
nature would allow.” 

There is a class of men who it might be sup¬ 
posed could never be the objects of indignation 
—I mean religious teachers—and yet the chief 
errors of the Christian Church have sprung 
from these persons. If there be any order of 
men who need to be watched and tested more 
than others by the light of the Bible, it is those 
who teach in our schools of theology and 
those who minister in our churches. If they 
venture to depart from the fundamental doc¬ 
trines of Christianity, a just indignation should 
overwhelm them. Better, a thousand times 
better, that a minister of God should seem a 
little too stringent, than that he should give 
way to laxness in religion. Indeed, unless I 
am greatly mistaken, it is absolutely necessary 
that he should be doubly stringent in order 
that he may the better force back the tide of 


176 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


evil that is seeking evermore to destroy the 
Church and salvation. Unless a minister has 
great love of truth, great fixedness of principle, 
and a divine courage, he will he tempted to 
sink down to the level of a worldly member¬ 
ship, till finally, instead of being a leader of 
the Lord’s host, that host leads him. We are 
never to forget that when religion is corrupted 
it is like the corrupting of the world’s atmos¬ 
phere, bringing speedy death to the inhabitants 
of that world. It is like poisoning the rivers 
and fountains of water, like striking out the 
sun from the heavens, leaving the earth a 
desert of darkness. 

The gambling fraternity should arouse our 
indignation. “History is replete with evi¬ 
dences that wherever gambling in any form is 
tolerated, bribery and corruption protect it, 
while the rights of law-abiding citizens are 
subverted, industrious habits are destroyed, 
common honesty undermined, and honest busi¬ 
ness enterprises are honey-combed, through 
employes rendered dishonest by these glitter¬ 
ing allurements to crime. During the year 
1890, one hundred and twenty-eight persons 
were either shot or stabbed over gambling 
games; six attempted suicide and twenty-four 
persons committed suicide, while sixty were 
murdered in cold blood and others were driven 


GREAT INDIGNATION. 


177 


insane. Sixty-eight youths and persons were 
ruined by pool gambling and betting upon horse¬ 
races . Among the crimes committed to get 
money to gamble with were two burglaries, 
eighteen forgeries, eighty-five embezzlements; 
while thirty-two persons holding positions of 
trust in banks and other places of responsibil¬ 
ity, absconded. The proceeds of these embez¬ 
zlements, defalcations, and crimes, amounted 
to $2,898,372 ” 

Still again, when we see liquor holding high 
revelry, minding neither tears nor entreaties, 
blasting the hopes of hearts and homes, ruin¬ 
ing sons and fathers by the deadly drink, 
should not our indignation be felt in some 
positive way against such offenders'? The 
liquor interest is becoming more and more a 
frightful despotism. Men are struck dead 
because they rise up against this tyrannic 
system. Liberty and righteousness must be 
trampled under foot in order that this banded 
scheme of immorality may have its own way. 
It is not “rule or ruin,” but rule and ruin. 
There needs to be a heated burst of eternal 
righteousness, a punitive stroke that will tell 
upon guilty souls. Softness and palaver, 
expediency and diplomatic piety, will not 
answer for these times of lawlessness. We 
want a steady gale of judicial thought and 


178 GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 

action, making the evils at work to fall and 
die. We want more of the close-knit theology 
of conscience, and less of the theology of mere 
pleasing and ornamentation. A holy war is 
now upon us, and we must fight. The martyr 
spirit must grasp us, and the martyr life must 
animate us. 

Moral indignation is at the bottom of all 
great reforms. It is this that gives force to 
the soul, and makes men to strike down evils 
that have stood for years and ages. An indig¬ 
nant people have arrested the corruption of 
great cities, have gained national rights, have 
put an end to slavery, and have proclaimed 
the brotherhood of man. Indignation in view 
of great evils started the Reformation of the 
sixteenth century. It was not merely a cor¬ 
rupt faith that excited the people, not merely 
that noble men were burned at the stake, but 
it was the greed, profanity, ambition, and lust 
of the priesthood which aroused them; and so 
they forsook the Romish system, and went 
back to the pure religion of the New Testa¬ 
ment. Indeed, it is a question whether any of 
the great awakenings in the Church have ever 
taken place apart from indignation against 
sin. The revivals of religion among the Jews 
of Old Testament times were certainly struck 
upon that key, and those that occurred under 


GREAT INDIGNATION. 


179 


John the Baptist, Christ, and the apostles were 
of the same character. The fact is, our relish 
for holiness will always be in proportion to 
our abhorrence of sin. There are few things 
that will so urge a man on to the performance 
of difficult duties as a divine indignation, just 
because love is there in its intense form. 

There is goodness at present, and even 
more of it than ever before, but the goodness 
is not sufficiently forceful. Our family life 
has lost the vigor of authority, and so a re¬ 
quest has taken the place of a command. A 
sickly feeling has also grown up in relation 
to criminals. By reason of a mawkish tender¬ 
ness they do not receive the due reward of 
their deeds. This sentiment has connected 
itself with divine punishment, and so the ten¬ 
dency is to weaken that. There is certainly 
needed all over the land a healthy indignation 
that will check evil and cheer the good. A 
reign of puritanism would be life. 


CHAPTER VI. 


GREAT PRINCIPLES. 

While the Bible is a book containing great 
truths and great facts, it is also a book con¬ 
taining great principles. These principles are 
sometimes stated in plain words, and some¬ 
times they are left to be inferred from the 
thought itself. As Biblical principles are 
numerous, we simply call attention to a few. 

I. THE HABITUAL PRACTICE OF ONE KNOWN SIN 
MAKES HOLINESS IMPOSSIBLE. 

This is a principle which tests our character. 
The one sin which is committed day by day 
and approved day by day reveals the moral 
state of a man just as truly as a hundred sins 
could do it. By this short and easy method 
any person can discover whether he is really 
good or bad in his heart; and yet it is a diffi¬ 
cult thing to get one to submit to a test of 
this kind. The principle seems to be too 
sweeping; and there is also a fear that if it is 
true, our character will be found wanting. So 


GREAT PRINCIPLES. 


181 


by a touch of self-righteousness, the prin¬ 
ciple is doubted. The mind fastens upon a 
number of acts that have been always thought 
to be good, and how can one habitual sin 
destroy these good acts ? Let us examine the 
matter. 

Suppose that a stranger has come to live in 
our village. He seems to be a man of wealth 
and intelligence. Although he does not press 
himself into notice, he is ready to help in all 
public improvements and is in favor of the 
great reforms of the day. He is a person of 
fine manners, impresses one as a real gentle¬ 
man, is kind to the poor, and attentive to the 
sick. He sustains an exemplary character for 
months and years, is honored by the whole 
population, and is consulted in all intricate 
cases because of his superior judgment. It 
comes out, however, that this distinguished 
man is the chief of a band of counterfeiters, 
and that all his money has been made in that 
way. The scales now are turned. The one 
act of counterfeiting shows that the good¬ 
ness was merely a show. The great man is 
tried, condemned, and sent to prison as a 
criminal. 

Take a different case from the common walks 
of life. Here is a young man who becomes a 
clerk in a store. He manifests unusual skill 


182 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


in the business he has adopted. He is a favor¬ 
ite not only with his employer, but with all 
the customers. The moral habits of the young 
man are excellent. He is chaste, truthful, and 
temperate; has joined the Young Men’s 
Christian Association, and has become a 
teacher in the Sabbath school. He has lately 
united with the Church, and it is prophesied 
that he will be a noted man in the community. 
In fact he is held up to the youth of the place 
as a model. But it has been discovered that 
the fair young man is a thief. He has been 
purloining money ever since he has been in 
the store. What now is the verdict? The 
verdict is, that he is a hypocrite. The one 
habitual sin showed that the goodness had no 
foundation. 

Illustrations of the point might be multi¬ 
plied, but they are not needed. If we set 
apart any one sin for our special use, and 
justify ourselves when we commit it, we are 
clean gone at the base of our being. The gov¬ 
erning power is evil; and the terrible thing is, 
that the evil is made good. A converted man 
may sin because of temptation, but he does 
not approve the sin; he condemns himself for 
committing it, repents and prays to Grod to 
forgive him. A sin in such circumstances is 
different from habitual falsehood, profanity, 


GREAT PRINCIPLES. 


183 


licentiousness, and forgetfulness of God. 
“ Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet 
offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” 

n. MORAL ACTION MUST BEGIN WITH GOD. 

It is a significant thought that the ten com¬ 
mandments begin with God. They are a 
revelation of his will for the guidance of man. 
The ten words are ten links of a golden chain. 
The first link is fastened to a God of holiness, 
and the last link to a man who desires to be 
holy; thus teaching us that law has no mean¬ 
ing unless it centres in a divine affection. 
Law must first be religious before it can be 
moral, and religion must first be theological 
before it can have the quality of godliness. 
The moral law is the expression of God’s in¬ 
finite purity; a purity that neither antedates 
the divine will nor follows it; but which con¬ 
stitutes the very essence of that will, and gives 
character to every divine attribute; so that 
even the natural perfections of immutability 
and omnipotence have the stamp of goodness. 
If I am to serve God, I must know him; know 
him as “ a Spirit, infinite, eternal, unchange¬ 
able in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, 
justice, goodness, and truth.” If I form a god 
after my own fancy, I am an idolator. That 
which man loves the most is his god. Then, 


184 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


too, we always become like the object of our 
affection. If our deity is bad we become bad: 
if our deity is good we become good. The 
various religions can be tested by this thought. 
The stream will not rise higher than its source. 
“ All people will walk every one in the name 
of his god.” 

The spirituality of the moral law is not seen 
in human systems. Confucius has done 
much for China by his ethical teachings; but 
he has failed in the chief thing, because the 
Divine was left out of them. Buddhism is 
extolled by men opposed to Christianity, and 
yet God is the infinite want of that scheme of 
life. It has these ten commandments: “Do 
not kill; do not steal; do not commit adultery; 
do not lie; do not become intoxicated; do not 
visit dances, singing, or theatrical representa¬ 
tions; use no ornaments or perfumery in 
dress; use no luxurious beds; accept neither 
gold nor silver.” # These commandments do 
not centre in the Supreme Being. As to athe¬ 
ism, it has no God, and as to pantheism and 
agnosticism, they have no personal God. Mark 
the logical results:— 

1. If there is no personal God, there is 
no creation, no miracle, no prayer, no per¬ 
sonal man. 

* Clarke, 11 Ten Great Religions,” p. 156. 


GREAT PRINCIPLES. 


185 


2. If there is no personal man, all actions 
are necessitated. 

3. If all actions are necessitated, there is no 
natural conscience. 

4. If there is no natural conscience, there is 
no accountability. 

5. If there is no accountability, there is 
neither sin nor holiness. 

6. If there is neither sin nor holiness, there 
is neither merit nor demerit. 

7. If there is neither merit nor demerit, 
there is neither reward nor punishment. 

Thus men can do as they please. The flood¬ 
gates of vice are opened. Families may be 
plundered and butchered, but no one is to 
blame. The wretches may be caged or killed, 
just as we cage or kill wild beasts. Let such 
godless principles prevail, and we should be 
in hell. If better principles are advocated, they 
do not spring from scepticism, but from the 
Gfod-created soul, or perchance from the very 
Christianity that is despised. No man has 
discovered a single new virtue since the Bible 
was completed. The pretended discoveries of 
that kind are either plainly stated or implied 
in the comprehensive ethics of the New Testa¬ 
ment. 


186 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


m. GREAT OPPOSITION, THEN GREAT SUCCESS. 

We are very apt to fasten the eye on opposi¬ 
tion itself, and then draw an unfavorable con¬ 
clusion from that. The opposition, however, 
is only one side of the question: that which 
is opposed must be taken into the account. 
There may be invisible powers which work 
for righteousness that we do not reckon upon, 
as well as visible power which our imperfect 
vision only sees in part. Sometimes second¬ 
ary agencies are busy that we do not think of, 
and sometimes the enemy is preparing means 
for his own defeat which he intends for an¬ 
other purpose. No man surveys the whole 
field of influence, and no man can tell what 
the results of that influence will be. It is only 
by studying the past that we strike upon a 
general principle that can guide us in the 
matter. Opposition will sometimes increase in 
strength for ages, as if it were in vain to think 
about mastering it; and yet when the favor¬ 
able moment comes it breaks down. The fact 
is, sin has great weakness as well as great 
strength: in the long run holiness gains the 
day. The point of greatest opposition may 
be the point which shows that the temple of 
error is just about to fall. The votaries of 
evil are beating up an excitement because they 


GREAT PRINCIPLES. 


187 


are in danger. The opposition is a spasm 
which ends in death, and the desperation is 
proof that goodness is victorious. Opposition 
is sometimes the occasion of the greatest prog¬ 
ress. Human nature under grace needs to 
he stirred in order to he strong. In the dark¬ 
est times the brightest men have appeared. 
There is a law of periodicity in the affairs of 
men; and that law sweeps great and small cir¬ 
cles according to circumstances and the plan 
of Grod. Seed may he sown one day, and har¬ 
vest may he the next; hut that is not the usual 
method. National and world movements take 
time. We may die without seeing the end; 
die when opposition is fierce and hope is dim. 
“ He that helieveth shall not make haste.” 

Nature adumbrates what is going on in the 
spiritual world, while Scripture presents to us 
the reality. The oppression of the children of 
Israel in Egypt and their final deliverance, is 
a standing illustration of the law of opposites. 
Noah, Job, David, and Daniel are embodiments 
of the same truth. During Christ’s stay upon 
earth opposition reached a climax, and yet 
success was never so complete as at the mo¬ 
ment of his death. If the apostles had only 
been able to read the writing, courage and not 
cowardice would have possessed them. What 
opposition assailed the early Church; yet at 


188 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


the end Paganism went under, and Christianity 
triumphed. In the martyrdoms of the six¬ 
teenth century, it seemed as if religion must 
die with its victims, and yet it lived. Deism 
in England tried its utmost, hut at the crisis 
Wesley appeared; and revivals spread over 
the nations, and have been spreading ever 
since. Methodism shows how great success 
follows great opposition. View the history of 
missions in India, Burmah, China, Japan, the 
islands of the sea, and the dark continent, and 
opposition is first and success afterwards. 
Thus far it is through sufferings and oftentimes 
through death that the kingdom of Christ has 
been established. If through agonies the 
world was redeemed, through agonies it must 
be restored. Even in the attempt to save a 
single soul, enmity will make its appearance 
before love; the first impulse of the heart with 
reference to salvation is resistance. The op¬ 
positions of Heathenism and u the oppositions 
of science falsely so called,” find their explana¬ 
tion in depravity. 

IV. “ HE THAT IS FAITHFUL IN THAT WHICH IS 
LEAST, IS FAITHFUL ALSO IN MUCH.” 

Faithfulness is a principle in the soul before 
it becomes an act out of the soul. We have 
faith in the faithful man. If a merchant has 


GREAT PRINCIPLES. 


189 


advertised for a messenger boy, and out of 
twenty lie finds one who is faithful in all the 
little matters at home, at school, and at play, 
he selects that one, feeling that he can be 
trusted. It is related of Samuel Budgett that 
“ one day he picked up a horseshoe, went with 
it three miles, and got a penny for it. By 
watching for bargains and stiffly insisting on 
adherence to their terms, he laid shilling to 
shilling, and pound to pound, until, at the age 
of fifteen, he was master of thirty pounds 
sterling.” To show that he was not a mere 
lover of money, he gave it all to his parents. 
The youth was prudent and pious, and so he 
became a distinguished merchant and a distin¬ 
guished Christian. Life is made up of littles, 
and the real character of a man is discovered 
in the way he attends to these. There does 
not appear to be the same opportunity for 
pride to connect itself with small things that 
there is with great. The small things stand 
out in their singleness, humble to look upon, 
with nothing about them to entice human na¬ 
ture ; and so nothing but principle in its sim¬ 
plicity, and yet greatness, will be powerful 
enough to attend to them. He who does his 
best in a low position, is the man to fill one 
that is high. Joseph was faithful in prison 
before he was faithful in the palace. Ability 


190 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


is not gained by a leap, but by a life. Men 
who carry forward great undertakings look 
well to particulars. Latitudinarianism is of 
no use in business or religion. 

A ship may give way in a storm because of 
a bad spar. He who fails in little things fails 
in great things. He that will lie to gain a 
small advantage, will certainly lie to gain a 
great advantage. He who thinks it nothing 
to steal a penny, will soon think it nothing to 
steal a pound. He who cheats once will cheat 
twice. The man who ends at the gallows be¬ 
gan by saying No. If Judas had not plundered, 
he might not have betrayed, and if he had not 
betrayed his Master, he would not have hung 
himself. 

The great man is the man of condescension. 
And so we have the principle, “He that is 
greatest among you shall be your servant.” 
He who serves in the lowest position, while 
he is capable of ruling in the highest, is the 
true nobleman. Or if the ruling is turned 
into a serving, that betokens the kingly mind. 
The Saviour was greatest when he was least. 
It should be noted also, that if we omit the 
highest duty, we fail in the lowest, because it 
is the highest which gives character to the 
lowest. If we sever the spiritual tie which 
binds us to the Supreme Being, we lose God 


GREAT PRINCIPLES. 


191 


and holiness at the same time. If we attempt 
after that to work in the highest or lowest 
sphere, the working lacks tone and quality; it 
is formal and undivine—simply the movement 
of cold faculties. 

V. IF I PERFORM A GOOD ACT I GAIN DOUBLE 

POWER, AND IF I PERFORM AN EVIL ACT I 

LOSE DOUBLE POWER. 

The thought here stated may not be under¬ 
stood at once. Illustrations will make it plain. 
The double movement can be seen in nature. 
If you are sailing in a ship against a head 
wind, not only does the wind oppose, but the 
sea also that is swept by the wind. Whereas 
if you are sailing with a fair wind, the sea and 
the wind alike help the ship. Let cold air 
rush into a room, and at once the heated air 
rushes out of it. The clouds that wander 
through heaven, receive vapor from the earth, 
and yet they return that vapor back again in 
the form of rain. Suppose that out of love I 
give a thousand dollars for a benevolent ob¬ 
ject: that act strengthens the feeling of be¬ 
nevolence, and weakens the feeling of selfish¬ 
ness. If I refuse to perform that good act, 
then I strengthen the feeling of selfishness, 
and weaken the feeling of benevolence. In 
the one case, I take two steps upward, and in 


192 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


the other, two steps downward. Suppose I go 
and ask the forgiveness of a man whom I have 
offended: that act increases the volume of 
good-will, and decreases the volume of ill-will. 
Suppose still further, that I make up my mind 
to break loose from the world and serve God: 
that determination lays an arrest on my im¬ 
penitence, and gives me a power of obedience 
that I never had before. Let a man carry out 
a train of close thinking upon a great subject 
—the mind is invigorated and knowledge is 
increased. 

That fine thought of Dr. Chalmers—“the 
expulsive power of a new affection ”—fits here 
exactly. “The best way of casting out an 
impure affection is to admit a pure one; and 
by the love of what is good, to expel the love 
of what is evil. Thus it is that the freer the 
Gospel, the more sanctifying is the Gospel; 
and the more it is received as a doctrine of 
grace, the more will it be felt as a doctrine 
according to godliness. This is one of the 
secrets of the Christian life, that the more a 
man holds of God as a pensioner, the greater 
is the payment of service back again.” It is 
certainly a fact also that if we act out the 
good impulses of the heart, we at the same 
time sweep away the mists of the understand¬ 
ing ; and equally true it is that a cloudy future 


GREAT PRINCIPLES. 


193 


will be made clear, if with a fixed determina¬ 
tion we enter upon the path of Duty. “ Unto 
the upright there ariseth light in the darkness.” 
The realm of truth and the realm of the future 
may alike confuse us, just because sin is lead¬ 
ing us astray. On the other hand, if our men¬ 
tal judgment is sound, that soundness will 
spread a healthy influence over the affections. 
We may add this also, that by doing right we 
are happy, and by doing wrong we are miser¬ 
able. In fact, both good and evil appear in 
clusters; sweet or bitter according to the na¬ 
ture of each. It is morally impossible for a 
sinful feeling to remain alone, and equally 
impossible for a holy feeling to remain alone. 
Deceit and falsehood, pride and sensitiveness, 
revenge and wrath, impenitence and unbelief, 
go together. Let love be kindled in the soul, 
and at once there is faith and hope, justice 
and mercy, truthfulness and self-abasement. 
It is by the law of affinity that character, good 
or bad, is formed, while the character which we 
possess is itself a potent law of action. It is 
the man that rules the man. 

VI. “ WHATSOEVER YE WOULD THAT MEN SHOULD 
DO TO YOU, DO YE EVEN SO TO THEM.” 

This is a synthetic statement of the various 
commands relating to man. It is short, dis- 


194 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


tinct, and comprehensive, so that it can be 
applied to all human affairs with readiness. 
It springs from the heart, and is the embodi¬ 
ment of mercy and justice. It implies right 
thought, right feeling, and right action. As a 
beautiful principle all assent to it. Negative 
forms of this maxim were in existence among 
Jews, Greeks, and Chinamen before the time 
of Christ. The positive form as coming from 
the Divine Saviour has a fulness of meaning 
which does not belong to the negative. The 
Christian conception of sin and holiness, of 
law and God, of redemption and retribution, 
is deeper than the conception of these by men 
outside of Christianity; consequently we have 
a more profound view of the golden rule. To 
apply the rule properly demands wisdom and 
goodness. Men are usually inclined to exact 
more from others than they exact from them¬ 
selves. We are not merely to see ourselves as 
others see us, but to see ourselves in the light 
of the perfect law. The man who tolerates in 
himself prejudices, errors of judgment, and 
omissions of duty, will not apply the rule im¬ 
partially. If he treats others as he would like 
them to treat him, the standard will be lowered 
on both sides, and neither party will do right. 
I must hold up the ideal before the face of the 
soul, and must try to do to men just as I 


GREAT PRINCIPLES. 


195 


would want them to do to me. I must not 
blink the great requirement, nor trim it at any 
point, but must honestly apply it to my life. 
The searching nature of the rule will not harm 
me, though it may alarm me. If I am pleas¬ 
antly thinking that I am doing sufficiently 
well, the Christly maxim will chase that con¬ 
ceit out of the soul. It will be infinite gain 
to have foreign matter removed, and nothing 
left but pure gold. While each person is to 
be treated according to the law of right, yet 
each person is not to be treated in the very 
same way. The father is to treat the son as 
a son , and the son is to treat the father as a 
father. Husband and wife, teacher and scholar, 
ruler and subject, are to act in love towards 
each other according to the relation of each 
one. As I would not want to be dealt with 
unfairly, so I must not deal unfairly. 

The strife between capital and labor would 
be ended and the world revolutionized if the 
golden rule were carried out. It is certainly 
a fair question whether any man can make 
millions of money in a few years without 
breaking the golden rule. Even if the man 
gives away millions, does that justify the busi¬ 
ness which grasps so much? Would it not be 
better to have a smaller profit, with less to 
give away, and more to remain in the hands 


196 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


of the people ? Thus with lower profits mer¬ 
chandise and property would he cheaper, and 
would not that he better, all things considered 1 
We must not he blinded by custom. So much 
wealth is not a sign of health. The discon¬ 
tented poor are not all wrong, and the con¬ 
tented rich are not all right. We must dis¬ 
criminate so as to reach the simple truth. 
There are evils, and the religion of Christ 
condemns them; evils, and the religion of 
Christ can cure them. The socialism of the 
good time coming will he the socialism of 
Christianity. 


CHAPTER VII. 


GREATNESS OF THE HUMAN SOUL. 

The topic of this chapter may strike certain 
persons as not one of the great thoughts of 
the Bible. The littleness of man would seem 
to them to be more in harmony with the truth. 
To expatiate on the greatness of the soul in 
the presence of a tribe of savages appears like 
irony. In fact, to view the mass of the earth’s 
population just as they are is a humbling sight. 
It may be questioned, therefore, whether our 
theme is anything more than a manifestation 
of human conceit, and whether it is not calcu¬ 
lated to lower the soul rather than exalt it. 
Does not Scripture say that man is a “ worm,” 
vand that “ all nations are before Giod as noth¬ 
ing?” Yes, it says that, and much more of 
the same kind; and the noblest minds v^ould 
be willing to express themselves in just such 
language. The great apostle could say, u I am 
less than the least of all saints.” There is a 
sense in which man is little, and a sense in 
which he is great, and his very littleness may 


198 


GREAT THOUGHTS OP THE BIBLE. 


at times prove his greatness. That our sub¬ 
ject is not contrary to Scripture will be seen as 
we unfold it. Indeed, certain great thoughts 
of the Bible may enable us to apprehend our 
exalted position in the system of the Almighty. 

The greatness of the soul may be affirmed 
from the fact that it is made in the image of 
God. No feeling or thought of man has a 
right to set aside a truth of this kind. Admit¬ 
ting that the moral image of God has been 
lost, the natural image remains. The soul as 
such is pure spirit, and that peculiar substance 
never can be changed by any act which it 
may put forth. No kind of evil touches the 
essence of the soul. Ignorance and sin char¬ 
acterize the state of the mind, but the mind 
itself, as the likeness of Deity, is beyond their 
search. If darkness and depravity could cor¬ 
rupt a spiritual essence its identity would be 
gone, and a miracle of creation would be 
needed to place it where it was at first. Here 
then is a power which bears a resemblance to 
the Supreme Power, a being which bears a 
resemblance to the Supreme Being. 

The faculties of this finite spirit are mod¬ 
elled after the faculties of the Infinite Spirit 
as far as that is possible. We can think, re¬ 
member, imagine. Certain fundamental ideas 
are in us from the first, without which we 


GREATNESS OF THE SOUL. 


199 


could not take a single intelligent step. As, 
for instance, time and space, cause and order; 
number and straightness, the true and the 
false, right and wrong. Besides the intellect¬ 
ual nature, there is the emotional, whose home 
is the heart; then the faculty of choice, which 
proclaims the fact of personality. The will is 
the most wonderful part of the soul. Over all 
these is that inward eye called consciousness; 
the soul subject and object at the same time. 
The mind thus constituted is to exist forever. 
An eternity of development is not a small 
thought. “ The very greatness of our powers 
makes this life look pitiful; the very pitiful¬ 
ness of this life forces on our thoughts to 
another; and the prospect of another gives a 
dignity and a value to this life which promises 
it; and thus this life is at once great and little, 
and we rightly condemn it while we exalt its 
importance.” # A mind with such attributes 
is anything but mean. Though Grod only is 
great, yet souls that are made like him have a 
secondary greatness. It is not surprising that 
we are commanded to “ honor all men.” The 
infant of a day may be reverenced as a reflec¬ 
tion of the Eternal Light. 

There is a tendency in all souls which works 

* Cardinal Newman, Sermon on “The Greatness and Lit¬ 
tleness of Human Life.” 


200 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


its way blindly towards the Divine. The 
movement appertains to the very nature of 
the human mind. It is not the same as when 
a person has an intuition of God, or a con¬ 
sciousness of God, or a conviction that there 
is a God. The tendency is deeper and more 
indistinct than these. It is not the result of 
thought or any action of the will, although 
both thought and will may awaken it, and 
even cause us somewhat to apprehend it. The 
tendency towards the Divine is constitutional, 
and cannot be destroyed by any amount of sin. 
Souls in perdition will have it; and although 
they may want to escape from its power, it 
yet remains as a witness for God. This 
divine movement of the creaturely spirit 
points to its high dignity, and suggests the 
destiny for which it was made, being a perpet¬ 
ual protest also against the fallen soul because 
a destination of darkness is now its lot. The 
strange feeling of loss , without being able to 
distinguish what the loss is, joins on to the 
divine tendency and gives meaning to it. 

Consider now the extent of human workman¬ 
ship as an illustration of the greatness of the 
human soul. Although it is not possible for 
the most gifted mind to take in the marvel¬ 
lous variety of this workmanship, yet let one 
thing be noted down after another that an 


GREATNESS OF THE SOUL. 


201 


approach may he made towards it. Think, to 
begin with, of the buildings that now stand in 
cities, villages, and country places. Having 
looked at the more common dwellings, mark 
those that are distinguished for strength and 
architectural beauty—the public and private 
edifices, the palaces and cathedrals. Put by 
themselves the temples and towers, the monu¬ 
ments and pyramids, and the great wall of 
China. See the collective ships on lake, river, 
and sea; the light-houses, life-boats, and life- 
preservers; the great bridges, tunnels, and 
aqueducts; the carts, carriages, and railway 
trains. Take note of the varied tools and 
instruments that are used, as if man had addi¬ 
tional hands and feet, and as if hearing and 
sight were intensified. Consider what has re¬ 
sulted from the lever, wheel, pulley, wedge, and 
screw. Let not the vast range of machinery 
be lost sight of; the forces of nature made to 
be the servants of man; so that power is gen¬ 
erated equal to the power of the entire human 
race. Count over the inventions of the past 
and present; especially those that astonish us 
by their mystery and movement; words heard 
hundreds of miles away, and the wealth of the 
soul conveyed across oceans and continents in 
a moment of time. Then the discoveries that 
have been made with reference to the laws of 


202 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


nature; and how the planetary bodies can be 
weighed, their motions determined, and their 
orbits described; so that these distant worlds 
are better known to us than many objects 
near at hand. We are to think also of the 
sculpture, painting, and music; the second 
spreading farther than the first, and the third 
spreading farther than the second; each in its 
way trying to reach the spiritual, and, in 
moments of high inspiration, the divine. 
Taste is displayed in furniture and curiously 
shaped vessels, in watches and silver-ware, in 
jewels and clothing. We imitate trees and 
clouds and the flash of the lightning. What 
a manifestation of mind also is the collective 
literature of time! History and philosophy, 
science and theology, expressing thought, and 
also developing it. Language is duplicated 
when written. That the contents of the mind 
can be spread out on paper and then read is 
wonderful. It is plain that a new world has 
been added to the old world by the power of 
souls. 

“ It is a strange and mournful truth,” says 
Frederick W. Robertson, “that the qualities 
which enable men to shine are exactly those 
which minister to the worst ruin. Hod’s 
highest gifts—talent, beauty, feeling, imagina¬ 
tion, power—carry with them the possibility 


GREATNESS OF THE SOUL. 


203 


of the highest heaven and the lowest hell. Be 
sure that it is by that which is highest in you 
that you may be lost. It is the awful warn¬ 
ing, and not the excuse of evil, that the light 
which leads astray is light from heaven. The 
shallow fishing-boat glides safely over the 
reefs where the noble bark strands: it is the 
very might and majesty of her career that 
bury the sharp rock deeper in her bosom.” * 
The fact that the soul is intrusted with its 
own eternal interests shows how great it must 
be. A responsibility of this kind is really 
fearful. Whether I shall be happy forever or 
miserable forever depends upon the action of 
my free will. No being can make a choice for 
me. I am thrust in upon myself. In single¬ 
ness of accountability I must thread my way 
through the labyrinth of time, must enter the 
viewless future in seclusion, and must face a 
destiny which is the outcome of my person¬ 
ality. 

The mind is greater than its conscious 
experience makes known to us. Back of con¬ 
sciousness is a region of life, intimations of 
which come forth in unexpected moments, 
surprising us with sights that we never saw 
before, and inspirations that quicken us for 
an instant and then depart. Revelations of 

* “Sermons,” Second Series, xv. 


204 GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 

hidden wealth appear; but links in the train 
of association that started these we cannot 
detect. For days we are troubled because we 
cannot recall a certain thought, when all at 
once it leaps into consciousness. Many a 
time by hard study we cannot give shape to a 
sentence that we want, neither can we unfold 
a great truth in a manner to satisfy us, while 
at other times the work is done with ease. 
Even in sleep visions flit through the soul that 
we never beheld when awake. Certain first 
truths of the mind may have a sphere of labor 
in the depths of our being, and the fruit of 
that labor may come to the surface when 
needed. Possibly at times angels are moving 
us, and as the outcome of their working we 
have thoughts of originality. 

Greatness of soul is seen in the power of 
habit. Proficiency would not be possible if 
habits did not exist. All our movements 
would be isolated; they would begin and end 
with themselves. We should have to do over 
and over again the very same things, whereas 
now we become fixed in the calling or charac¬ 
ter we have cultivated. The work is then 
easier, and can be reckoned upon with cer¬ 
tainty. The whole mental process is thus 
arranged in compact sections, and does not 
appear as fugitive sparks and atoms of 


GREATNESS OF THE SOUL. 


205 


thought. While power is seen in the forma¬ 
tion of habits, power is also economized by 
this very means, and can be used in establish¬ 
ing other lines of action at the very time the 
habits are working by their compressed energy. 
In all this we behold grasp of soul, order, and 
calmness. There are habits that hold the 
mind forever, and which make one to tremble 
by the sweep of their power. The influence 
of a trained human spirit may encircle the 
globe, as if it were reaching out to a kind of 
omnipresence. 

Even in sin there are evidences of greatness. 
If man did not have all the faculties of an 
accountable being he could not sin, and the 
greatness of his sin shows the greatness of his 
mind. Those persons are not consistent who 
lessen sin, but exalt the soul. It is the same 
natural power that goes into sin that goes into 
holiness, only the power is reversed. The 
engine that presses a train back is the same 
that draws it forward. Sin is the great 
monopoly. “ It cannot be doubted that human 
energy in this world reaches its mightiest 
achievements when put forth in the service of 
evil. Force of human character finds its most 
athletic illustrations in the bad passions. The 
human soul has developed more power in cul¬ 
tivating and strengthening and organizing 


206 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


and concentrating sin, than in destroying it.” 
Sin is inventive. What efforts are put forth 
to make it attractive! The dwellings of vice 
are beautified, and a smiling welcome is given 
to all who will enter. How suggestive are the 
words “ gin palaces ”; palaces of ruin to thou¬ 
sands of souls. Sometimes a greater amount 
of mind is seen in contrivances for evil than 
in contrivances for good. “The children of 
this world are in their generation wiser than 
the children of light.” They watch oppor¬ 
tunities and improve them. They exhibit skill 
and tact, determination and self-denial. They 
make sin to appear respectable, and wrong to 
appear right. The utmost ingenuity is some¬ 
times made in transforming evil into good, and 
good into evil. The temple of Diana at 
Ephesus must be equally great with the tem¬ 
ple of Hod at Jerusalem. It is startling the 
amount of power that has resulted from a 
deceived conscience. 

It is curious that all men want to be well 
thought of. This is really a testimony in favor 
of goodness at the very time the soul does not 
care for it. It seems almost a reminiscence of 
the golden age, when man primeval lived in 
peace and the smile of Grod was heaven to his 
soul. That first man was never able to forget 
the clear morning he spent with the angels; 


GREATNESS OF THE SOUL. 


207 


and the approving welcome which they gave 
him lingered about his soul, even as the rays 
of the sun linger about the horizon after the 
sun has set. He was loth to confess that that 
tribute of honor was his no more: he clung to 
it, though by right it was not his. Like Saul, 
who wanted to be honored by Samuel when 
God had left him, so Adam wanted to retain 
his good name though he had lost his good¬ 
ness. This feeling of the first man seems to 
have been conveyed to all his descendants, and 
so each of them wishes to be well thought of. 
We cannot say that all this is folly, although 
folly is connected with it. Something of the 
higher nature blends with the lower, and 
beauty in its orphan state mingles with it. 
Let a man have all the possessions that the 
earth can bestow, he will yet not feel satisfied 
if he fails to gain the esteem of his fellow-men. 
Their esteem is greater than all things else. 
This shows that there is a greatness about the 
human soul, and that that soul does not sink 
into nothingness at the moment of death. 

The unrest of the soul points to its great¬ 
ness. The quality of the unrest is not that of 
a mind little by nature and little in the object 
for which it was created. The soul was made 
for God, but has left him—hence its unrest. 
To be unhappy and to be conscious of it are 


208 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


marks of greatness. The misery of man is 
that of a king who has lost his kingdom by 
his own folly. His crown is in the dust, his 
sceptre broken, his royal dress in rags, and he 
in exile lamenting his fate. Guilt works in 
the conscience. Disharmony reigns in the 
soul. There is no power or passion that has 
the ease and maj esty of righteousness. Wants 
crave for satisfaction, but find not that which 
meets their case. New objects please only for 
a time. There are hours when a faintness falls 
upon the spirit and when pastime brings no 
gladness. The soul tires in its chase for good. 
A sigh ascends from the heart. That sigh is 
a prayer. There is a void which nothing fills. 
The soul is moody, distant, strange. It is not 
itself; never has been itself. A pain is at the 
centre of being. A burden is there which 
nothing removes. Back of the smile is heavi¬ 
ness. Back of the song is sadness. The spirit 
looks out and away. It seems to pierce eter¬ 
nity. It is in search of fountains of life. It 
would drink and be refreshed. “ One striking 
fact about human misery, brought out by the 
Gospel, is that the sense of our wretchedness is 
almost always accompanied by a sense of the 
dignity and grandeur of our nature. Brutes 
may suffer and die, without remorse, without 
hope, without despair. But so it cannot be 


GREATNESS OF THE SOUL. 


209 


with man; he has remorse for the past, and 
fear or hope for the future. And this is 
because, made originally in the image of God, 
that image is still and ever before the eye of 
reason and conscience, though the heart and 
will be fixed on inferior and transient delights. 
Man is a sinner, condemned to death; and the 
condemnation is so terrible because he was 
made not to die, but to live forever j though 
he might aspire to a throne, he walks to a 
scaffold, and the scaffold becomes awful be¬ 
cause it has such a regal victim; awful even 
though, yea, because, the condemnation is 
just.” * 

There is in the God-created soul a sentiment 
of the infinite. All souls have it; the lowest as 
well as the highest. It is hidden for a time 
even as the rich gem is hidden in the earth; 
but by and by occasions call it forth. There 
are times when the spirit breaks loose, when 
it flies away with unearthly pinions, when it 
thinks of a home that is lovelier than any 
home here. The clear blue sky encompassing 
the earth, the white clouds sailing over it as if 
they were the islands of the angels, the birds 
of passage on their way to a sunny land, the 
mountains that go up to heaven, awaken the 
sentiment of the infinite. The moaning of 

* Smith, “ System of Christian Theology,” p. 381. 


210 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


the wind among the trees, the glimmering of 
stars in the distant canopy of night, the rolling 
of thunder like the chariot wheels of God, are 
fitted to suggest the infinite. A tear in the 
eye when comfort avails not to bless, the soli¬ 
tary nature of human destiny, a grave-yard 
with its silent inhabitants, an ancient monu¬ 
ment standing in the midst of a populous city, 
will bring out the sentiment of the infinite. 
There are strains of poetry and flights of elo¬ 
quence, passages of Scripture and visions of 
the Son of God, that move one towards the 
infinite. Even beholding the low rivalries of 
men will drive a thoughtful mind in the direc¬ 
tion of it. Love and sorrow seem to have 
something of the infinite about them, and the 
feeling of loss and demerit cannot very well 
be bounded. Is it not a fact that sin itself, 
the great mystery, sweeps away every limita¬ 
tion? The soul apart from all voluntary 
movements, by its very constitution, demands 
the infinite. 

There is nothing that impresses us so deeply 
in regard to the greatness of the soul as the 
greatness of salvation. The fact that God had 
to become man in order to open up a way of 
recovery for man is by itself a most convincing 
argument. If the human soul were insignifi¬ 
cant, it is not at all likely that an incarnation 


GREATNESS OF THE SOUL. 


211 


would be necessary. Considering that God 
is a being of infinite resources, he certainly 
would have struck upon a method far more 
simple than that of an incarnation if it had 
been suitable for him to do so. The fact that 
he has done no such thing, but has selected 
the present method, shows that an incarnation 
could alone meet the case of man’s redemption. 
This wonderful stoop of Divinity to humanity 
betokens the high estimation that was placed 
upon the human soul. We can have an idea 
of man by looking at the God-man. 

Still further, considering what befell the 
God-man as he travailed in the greatness of 
his strength in order to work out salvation, 
we behold an additional proof of the dignity 
of human nature. If the incarnation as a 
preparatory step points to the greatness of 
man, much more does redemption as the one 
saving characteristic point to that greatness. 
When we think that the Possessor of all things 
emptied himself, so that the Independent be¬ 
came dependent, we are startled into thought¬ 
fulness respecting the creature who could only 
be rescued by such self-abnegation. Then, 
too, noticing the fact that such a One with 
such a spirit did allow himself to be misrepre¬ 
sented and persecuted, condemned and cruci¬ 
fied, the conclusion is, that a price like that 


212 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


never would have been paid for man’s redemp¬ 
tion if worth did not belong to the nature of 
man. A great soul committed a great sin, and 
so a great salvation was necessary. 

The grandeur of human nature is seen when 
the soul is acting under the power and presence 
of the Spirit of God. It is a remark of John 
Howe, “ That the truest notion we can yet 
have of the primitive nature and capacity of 
man, is by beholding it in its gradual restora¬ 
tion.” The greatness of the soul grows upon 
us as we behold the ever-brightening manifes¬ 
tations of Christian character. Devotion with 
reference to the highest good of man, seeking 
for righteousness as the chief excellence, mak¬ 
ing God the centre of every movement, cour¬ 
ageous in the midst of opposition, peaceful in 
the midst of conflict, humble when at the 
highest point,—such a soul is great. Then 
when the whole work of restoration is complete 
and the man of earth has become the man of 
heaven, the grandeur of human nature will 
be a most glorious reality. The entire people 
of God perfected will show greatness and 
splendor such as at present we cannot imagine. 
If there was grandeur when the temple was in 
ruins, much more will there be grandeur when 
it is restored. 

The cherubim seem to symbolize the princely 


GREATNESS OF THE SOUL. 


213 


state of the people of God. The ox , the lion , 
the eagle , and maw were combined together, 
as if to furnish us with an idea of life of great 
power. In the ox was the productive princi¬ 
ple, in the lion were might and daring, in the 
eagle swiftness and far-seeing vision, and in 
man intelligence and conscience. The cher¬ 
ubim could not represent God, as all images 
of the Deity are forbidden. They seem there¬ 
fore to represent an exceedingly high form of 
creaturely life, inasmuch as the highest sam¬ 
ples of creaturely existence are merged to¬ 
gether so as to constitute one exalted being. 
The cherubim guarded the way of the tree of 
life , and in the book of Ezekiel they are called 
living creatures, while in the book of Revela¬ 
tion they seem to stand at the very summit of 
life. They and the four and twenty elders 
“ sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy 
to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: 
for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to 
God by thy blood out of every kindred, and 
tongue, and people, and nation.” Thus the 
cherubim along with the elders.were redeemed , 
and so they represent redeemed humanity. 
They sung a new song, showing that their ex¬ 
perience was peculiar. “This bespeaks the 
wonderful fact, brought out in the history of 
redemption, that man’s nature is to be exalted 


214 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


to the dwelling-place of God. In Christ it is 
taken, so to speak, into the very bosom of the 
Deity; and because it is so highly honored in 
him, it shall attain to more than angelic glory 
in his members, be admitted to dwell, if we 
may venture to express ourselves, nearest to 
the throne of God, and be fitted for giving 
forth the most wonderful manifestations of 
his glorious attributes.” * 

* Fairbairn, “Typology of tlie Scriptures,” vol. i., p. 197. 




PART III. 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE WHICH PERTAIN TO 
CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAVED. 






























































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PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS. 


It seems as if our souls had movements 
which cannot he explained save as we link 
them on to heaven. We have a kind of dim 
recollection of that glorious place. Thoughts 
are in us which seem to be native to the world 
of light. Perhaps words are spoken here, that 
are spoken there; only that the sound and the 
sense are so changed that the inhabitants of 
that upper kingdom would not recognize their 
meaning. On many a day we pant for un¬ 
known abodes; the place we call home points 
to one that is better. We are always in a 
foreign land, and seem strange to ourselves 
and to others. Those who are friends are yet 
strangers. There is a burden that we carry 
alone, and possibly a love that we never ex¬ 
press. This fact of reticence is a character¬ 
istic of all mankind. We are never really 
ourselves while here. 

There is a mystical region in all human 
souls. Some of our finest thoughts are the 
outcome of the unconscious working of the 


218 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


mind. Studied workmanship would lack a 
certain beauty if the unconscious did not min¬ 
gle with it. A hidden angel goes with us, 
inspiring us when we know it not, and bearing 
us up to mountain summits where glory shines. 
There is a poetry of souls. It is the language 
of the unconscious life. It has euphony which 
tells of the eternal paradise. The Eden that 
we have lost points to the Eden yet to be 
gained, when the sunny days of yore will come 
again as our sweet home nestles among the 
hills of God. In that land of eternal sunshine 
the fair people dwell in the midst of peace, and 
the happy hours glide away like the rivers of 
the great city that has no night. In skies that 
are remote there is a radiance that stretches 
on forever, and harmonies that float through 
them echoing joy. 

Music of the highest order sounds the depths 
of the soul, and awakens a class of spiritual 
faculties. Music is a distinct language, quite 
ethereal in its movement, and very near to 
pure spirit. If we need to be aroused to 
action or hushed into stillness, music is a fit 
instrument for that purpose. It seems as if 
there was a something in music besides itself, 
as if powers from the higher world entered 
into it and made it effectual. “ Is it possible,” 
remarks Cardinal Newman, “that that inex- 


PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS. 


219 


haustible evolution and disposition of notes, 
so rich yet so simple, so intricate yet so regu¬ 
lated, so various yet so majestic, should be a 
mere sound, which is gone and perishes ? Can 
it be that those mysterious stirrings of heart, 
and keen emotions, and strange yearnings 
after we know not what, and awful impres¬ 
sions from we know not whence, should be 
wrought in us by what is unsubstantial, and 
comes and goes, and begins and ends in itself? 
It is not so, it cannot be. No; they have 
escaped from some higher sphere; they are 
the outpouring of eternal harmony in the 
medium of created sound; they are echoes 
from our home, they are the voice of angels, 
or the magnificat of saints, or the living laws 
of divine governance, or the divine attributes; 
something are they besides themselves, which 
we cannot compass, which we cannot utter;— 
though mortal man, and he perhaps not other¬ 
wise distinguished above his fellows, has the 
gift of eliciting them.” * 

But after death—what? When the sunset 
gun echoes on the still air the concealed gate 
is opened, and the perfected spirit enters the 
land of the morning. Death is the dark-faced 
usher who opens that gate; after which he is 
seen no more by the ransomed soul. One 

* Quoted in Prof. Shairp’s “Aspects of Poetry,” p. 398. 


220 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


imagines that a soul divested of its body must 
act as if something were wanting, and must 
be feeling round for that which is lost. In a 
moment, however, it is at ease, and there is 
a sweet realization of its state. Angels are at 
hand in order to accompany the disembodied 
spirit to its home, and to introduce it to the 
people who are found there. The way to 
the palace of God is one of pleasantness. A 
strange and lonely feeling, which we might 
suppose to belong to a soul, is lost in a feeling 
of liberty. The angels fill up the golden 
moments with thoughts of the glory of the 
place they are about to enter. The new spirit 
reaches the wondrous kingdom, and is wel¬ 
comed by the heavenly salutations of saint 
and seraph. The vision that bursts upon the 
soul is most glorious. 

“ A voice is heard on earth of kinsfolk weeping 
The loss of one they love; 

But he is gone where the redeemed are keeping 
A festival above. 

“ The mourners throng the way, and from the steeple 
The funeral bell tolls slow; 

But on the golden streets the holy people 
Are passing to and fro; 

“And saying as they meet, ‘Rejoice ! another 
Long waited for is come; 

The Saviour’s heart is glad, a younger brother 
Hath reached the Father’s home.’” 


PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS. 


221 


As Adam must have been greatly astonished 
by his first night in Eden, so the soul must be 
greatly astonished by its first day in heaven. 
Adam beholds the snn sinking in the west. 
He is amazed. The darkness thickens. What 
can this mean? The air is still. The stars 
appear. They are new to him. What are 
they? Have they just been created? The 
night continues. Will it always be night? 
Adam falls asleep. Did that first man on that 
first night dream ? If he did, that first dream 
must have been of day. Adam awakes, looks 
around; it is still dark. But shortly there is 
a change. Light begins to gather about the 
eastern sky. The birds chant their morning 
hymn. The sun rises. Adam has learned of 
the night. So just the opposite, the liberated 
soul has learned of the day, but it is a day 
that has no night. The redeemed spirit must 
be carried away in ecstasy because of the 
crystal purity that is found on every hand. 
Hours must pass before it becomes habituated 
to the excellencies of the place and people. 

The Bible speaks of u the city of the living 
GodP That heightens it. Though heaven is 
chiefly a life , it is none the less a jolace of 
beauty. We think of it as of great extent, 
the centre of all things, the one place where 
creation is recapitulated, the metropolis of the 


222 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


universe, the country of Grod. Aristotle, 
though a heathen philosopher, could say, 
“ Heaven, as the place of circular motion, and 
the scene of unchangeable order, stands nearest 
the first moving cause, and is under its im¬ 
mediate influence; it is the place where the 
ancients, guided by the correct tradition of a 
lost wisdom, have placed the Divine abode.” * 
Astronomers tell us that the law of gravitation 
demands a central universe, around which all 
the starry systems revolve. Several Christian 
philosophers think that this central universe 
may be heaven. 

“From this glorious centre,” remarks Dr. 
Dick, “embassies may be occasionally de¬ 
spatched to all surrounding worlds, in every 
region of space. Here, too, deputations from 
all the different provinces of creation, may 
occasionally assemble, and the inhabitants of 
different worlds mingle with each other, and 
learn the grand outlines of those physical 
operations and moral transactions’, which have 
taken place in their respective spheres. Here, 
may be exhibited to the view of unnumbered 
multitudes, objects of sublimity and glory, 
which are nowhere to be found within the 
wide extant of creation. Here, intelligences 
of the highest order, who have attained the 

* Schwegler, “Hist, of Philosophy,” p. 128. 


PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS. 


223 


most sublime heights of knowledge and virtue, 
may form the principal part of the population 
of this magnificent region. Here, the grand¬ 
eur of the Deity, the glory of his physical and 
moral perfections, and the immensity of his 
empire, may strike the mind with more bright 
effulgence, and excite more elevated emotions 
of admiration and rapture, than in any other 
province of universal nature. In fine, this 
vast and splendid central universe may con¬ 
stitute that august mansion referred to in 
Scripture, under the designation of the third 

HEAVENS—THE THRONE OF THE ETERNAL—THE 
HEAVEN OF HEAVENS—THE HIGH AND HOLY PLACE 
—and THE LIGHT THAT IS INACCESSIBLE AND 
FULL OF GLORY.”* 

* “Philosophy of a Future State,” Part III. 


CHAPTER I. 


THE SAVED AEE BLESSED WITH THE VISION OF 
THE TEIUNE GOD. 

A class of writers have attempted to make 
heaven tangible and attractive by crowding 
into it as much of the earthly and human as 
possible. Our affections have been rendered 
voluptuous in view of the objects they are to 
find in the other life. What an infinite con¬ 
trast between such views and the one that God 
is heaven! A species of naturalism has been 
working in good souls, so that their vision is 
darkened with reference to the higher world. 
Only the Godlike can see God. 

Speculative minds have told us that we are 
rays of the Infinite Sun, waves of the Infinite 
Ocean, pulsations of the Infinite Heart; thus 
going to another extreme. Mystics have had 
golden dreams of God, and of the soul that is 
lost in him. 

The distaste of mortals in the midst of pleas¬ 
ure, the tired feeling when seated on the pin¬ 
nacle of fame, the companionships that still 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH THE VISION OF GOD. 225 

leave the soul companionless, show that God 
is the one that is needed. In the Vedic hymns 
we have the two following sentences, which 
express the deep want of the heart: “ Thirst 
came upon the worshipper, though he stood in 
the midst of the waters. Yearning for him 
the far-seeing, my thoughts move onwards as 
kine to their pastures.” Nothing satisfies but 
God. Let man reach his normal state, and at 
once he finds him. 

I. VISION OF GOD IN THE UNITY OF HIS BEING. 

The ceaseless adoration of all pure souls will 
express itself in the words, “ Our Father which 
art in heaven.” God is a delightful presence, 
and the soul is wrapped up in him by intense 
thought and love. The thinking is a loving, 
and the loving is a thinking. Emotion goes 
with the thought as if the intellect had in it 
sensibility, and thought flows out of emotion 
as if there were a thinking with the heart. He 
that loveth knoweth God. As a complete truth 
the entire mind goes out to the Supreme, 
because that entire mind is charmed by infinite 
excellence. “ God is more worthy of our affec¬ 
tions because he is the Eternal God, than be¬ 
cause he is our Creator; because he is more 
excellent in his nature, than in his transient 
actions; the beams of his goodness to us, are 


226 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


to direct our thoughts and affections to him; 
hut his own eternal excellency ought to be the 
ground and foundation of our affections to 
him.” * 

“ God is the absolute ideal.” No excellence 
can be conceived which is not found in God. 
Bisk or danger cannot be predicated of absolute 
sufficiency. The unbounded knowledge of the 
divine mind, the unbounded feeling of the 
divine heart, and the unbounded activity of the 
divine will, place the Deity out of comparison 
with any finite intelligence. By reason of a 
certain familiarity which we have cultivated 
with reference to God, we are in danger of 
making him to appear different from what he 
is. We must strive with our collective powers 
to keep the Divine pure to our vision, scrupu¬ 
lous lest we lower Eternal Perfection. How¬ 
ever true it may be that holy beings bear the 
image of God, there is a sense in which we dare 
not compare him with any creature. A Divine 
Being is so singular that there is nothing the 
same as “ his everlasting power and divinity.” 
The divine glory is what it is, because God 
is what he is. The brilliancy of the Infinite 
Light would dim the eye of the glowing sera¬ 
phim if they were to gaze upon it. 

* Charnock, “Attributes of God,” vol. i., p. 308. New 
York ed. 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH THE VISION OF GOD. 227 


The beautiful in its completeness is found 
only in God. All the excellencies that will 
appear in the onward march of eternity will 
simply be reflections of divine beauty. “ It is 
through God’s shining that all else shines.” 
An Absolute Spirit is light and life, love and 
liberty, beauty per se. When with pure eye 
we scan the inward possessions of the God¬ 
head, we behold universes of glory, and in these 
universes systems upon systems, all shining 
with a divine lustre. See the beauty of those 
ideals that have been in the mind of God from 
all eternity: ideals of truth, of character, and 
of form. Ideal cities seem to stand upon the 
plains of the divine nature, and along the 
shores of eternal oceans. Archetypal worlds 
seem to roll around their suns, and trees grow 
and flowers smile in the gardens of the Lord, 
and rivers of life flow on forever. There is 
no telling of the wondrous paintings that hang 
around the halls of God’s nature, and the stat¬ 
ues that stand by the gates of peace. When 
we think of the Deity as a being of infinite 
resources, we say that he must be a being of 
infinite possibilities , and so we conceive of ideal 
creatures, systems, and universes as having a 
place in that great mind, but which will never 
be made actual out of it. They simply show 
the wealth of God, and no eye but his ever 


228 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


gazes upon them. I should say that the possi¬ 
ble creations of an Almighty Being must out¬ 
number the actual creations of such a Being. 
There must be ideals so complete and beauti¬ 
ful that they never can be realized in space 
and time 

The question now arises, Will purified souls 
have a direct vision of the excellences of the 
divine nature! It is the opinion of certain 
distinguished men that souls in heaven can see 
what is going on in the mind of each other, 
just as we can see what is going on in a watch 
when we look into it; so it is supposed that 
the glorified can see directly the thoughts and 
feelings of God. This gazing upon the Infinite 
Spirit is what these persons mean by the be¬ 
atific vision; the highest bliss of heaven con¬ 
sisting in this intuition of the Deity. While 
it is admitted that no man with his bodily 
senses can see God, inasmuch as he has no 
form, yet as the Bible informs us that “ the 
pure in heart shall see God,” it is thought that 
there will be a direct vision of the Most High. 

As to the correctness of this view, I will not 
venture absolutely to deny it, although I am 
not inclined to accept it. We have no expe¬ 
rience of one mind looking into another mind. 
Even as it regards our own soul we have never 
seen it. The two essences of mind and matter 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH THE VISION OP GOD. 229 


are hidden from ns, and it is doubtful whether 
we shall ever know them directly; and as to 
God’s infinite essence, it is too rash to say that 
we shall see that. We cannot know the Divine 
Being in the same way that the Divine Being 
knows himself. God is mirrored in the pure 
heart; then the pure heart perceives the glo¬ 
rious likeness. “ When the soul is calm and 
composed,” says Leighton, “ it may behold the 
face of God shining on it.” The Eternal One 
only reaches us through a certain medium, and 
we can only reach him through that medium. 
“ No man hath seen God at any time: the only 
begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the 
Father, he hath declared him.” In the Incar¬ 
nate Saviour the Absolute Spirit takes form, 
and the silent God becomes the speaking God. 

n. VISION OF GOD THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF 
THE GOD-MAN. 

The Son of God is central in the divine 
nature and central in the divine system. He 
sustains different relations, and in some of 
these we notice the fact of development. In 
his pre-existent state all is fixed in eternal 
beatitude; he is “ the effulgence of God’s glory, 
and the very image of his substance,” the 
treasury of ideals that are to be made real in 
the march of everlasting time. The first mo- 


230 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


ment at length appears, and the pendulum of 
the great clock begins to move never to stop, 
and so the Son of God creates; revelation 
making it plain that “ all things were made by 
him.” Thus we catch the thought that the 
absolute God does not act directly, but acts 
through the medium of the Son. The medial 
relation takes on different forms in order to 
meet the wants of the creatures at certain given 
times. The Divine Person who conversed with 
Adam in his primeval state was evidently the 
Son of God in a visible form, and at various 
times during the history of the Jewish people 
he appeared as a man , though not a man in 
the full sense of that word. When the fulness 
of time came, “ The Word was made flesh, and 
dwelt among us ”: here we have the God-man. 
While he was upon earth he suffered and died. 
The next stage is that of the God-man in a 
state of glory in heaven, acting as priest and 
king until the redemptive period closes. The 
final state is when all the good have been 
gathered into the celestial commonwealth and 
when the God-man is their centre and joy for¬ 
ever. 

Although the kingdom of grace has ended 
in the kingdom of glory, and law has taken 
the place of redemption, Christ still remains 
as an incarnate person. The Apocalypse, giv- 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH THE VISION OF GOD. 231 


ing an account of heaven, uses this language: 
“ The city had no need of the sun, neither of 
the moon to shine in it: for the glory of God 
did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light 
thereof.” The writer even saw “ in the midst 
of the throne a Lamb, as it had been slain,” 
intimating that the Saviour has marks upon 
his person which show that he once suffered. 

The incarnation of the Son of God is not 
merely a means with reference to redemption, 
because if that were all it would cease when 
redemption had done its work. Even if we 
admit that there could be no incarnation with¬ 
out sin, this does not make an incarnation 
unnecessary for other ends besides the restora¬ 
tion of the sinful. The wisdom of God is seen 
in the fact that he makes a single instrument 
to answer a number of purposes; and all these 
purposes are included in the original plan. 
The incarnation, therefore, will continue to be 
an eternal means in the kingdom of God, hav¬ 
ing treasured up in it a wealth of truth and 
influence that goes beyond all reckoning. 

The glorified God-man has a universal sig¬ 
nificance. “ He is set far above all principality, 
and power, and might, and dominion, and 
every name that is named, not only in this 
world, but also in that which is to come ”; it 
being the intention of God to “ gather together 


232 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


in one all things in Christ, both which are in 
heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.” 
Thus he is not only the head of redeemed hu¬ 
manity, but the head also of the angelic hosts; 
and as these two classes of beings evidently 
stand for all holy creatures, it is safe to say 
that the headship of the God-man has refer¬ 
ence to the entire universe of pure minds. He 
is the sun of the spiritual system, sending 
forth light and heat to its immense population. 
Not only does the God-man sum up in himself 
the glories of the creation, but the excellencies 
of Deity shine forth in him, so that he can be 
spoken of as “ the fulness of the Godhead bod¬ 
ily.” In this way he connects the Infinite with 
the finite, and is the chief medium of divine 
manifestation. Now the creature can gain a 
knowledge of God in a way that is more simple 
than by the teaching of universal nature. The 
fact that here is a person who is both the re- 
vealer and the revelation of God, makes him to 
be exactly suited to the finite mind. “The 
minute and variegated details of the way in 
which this wondrous economy is extended, 
God has chosen to withhold from us; but he 
has oftener than once made to us a broad and 
a general announcement of its dignity. He tells 
us that the Lamb who was slain is surrounded 
by the acclamations of one wide and universal 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH THE VISION OF GOD. 233 


empire; that the might of his wondrous 
achievements spreads a tide of gratulation 
over the multitudes who are about his throne; 
and that there never ceases to ascend from the 
worshippers of him who washed us from our 
sins in his blood, a voice loud as from numbers 
without number, sweet as from blessed voices 
uttering joy, when heaven rings jubilee, and 
loud hosannas fill the eternal regions.” * 

The culminating thought is this, that the 
God-man is the end as well as the medium of 
divine manifestation. It cannot be said of any 
finite intelligence that he is both means and 
ultimate end; but of this unique person it is 
strictly true that “ all things were created by 
him, and for him.” This opens up a grand 
system of Christology, presenting to all the 
kingdoms of mind the ultimate point towards 
which they must direct their course. The 
theophany of the creation seems to be ever 
seeking the supreme and perfect theophany of 
Christ. Even dead matter has characters 
stamped upon it which can only be explained 
by the existence of the Incarnate Word. 
“ When Paul says that all things were created 
for and by the love of the Son of God, no one 
will be able to deny that he regards this Son 
and his honor as the end of the completion of 

* Chalmers, “ Astronomical Discourses,” discourse iv. 


234 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


things even in creation. But he must have 
deemed the Son of God’s love as he actually 
will be and is at the end, consequently as God- 
man, to be his aim.” # The highest philosophy 
and the highest ethics end here, and theology 
itself and the absolute religion terminate in 
the divine-human Mediator. This is the point 
of unity where God and the creature meet. 
The beatific vision finds its realization in the 
God-man. He could say with utmost truth, 
“ He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” 
In him all is settled; the divine home is 
reached. u Worthy is the Lamb that was slain 
to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, 
and strength, and honor, and glory, and 
blessing.” 

m. VISION OF GOD MADE POSSIBLE BY THE 
POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

That the work of the Spirit is eternal, and 
not limited to time, and that it relates to holy 
beings in heaven, as well as to sinful beings 
on earth, is an idea that Christian people gen¬ 
erally do not think about. It is fair to admit 
that the Bible does not speak directly upon the 
subject, and yet indirectly it sheds light upon 
it. There may indeed be passages of Scripture 

* Derner, “Hist, of tlie Doet. of the Person of Christ,” 
yoI. iii., p. 248. 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH THE VISION OF GOD. 235 

touching the mission of the Spirit in heaven 
whose meaning has not yet been discovered, 
but which will be discovered by the Church of 
the future when the eye is clearer and the 
heart purer than at present. It is certainly a 
fact that our knowledge respecting the work 
of the Spirit is not as extended as our knowl¬ 
edge respecting the work of Christ. It would 
seem as if there is yet to be a development in 
regard to this doctrine, in order that it may 
take its proper place beside the other doctrines 
of Christianity, and that well-balanced praise 
may ascend to the Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost. That the Spirit works in seclu¬ 
sion may furnish a reason why little by 
little we must learn about such a peculiar 
ministry. We need to be guarded and checked 
lest with undue freedom we think of the 
mysterious doings of this Divine Messen¬ 
ger. 

The subject may be opened up by such 
questions as these: As the Spirit leaves the 
wicked at the moment of death, will he leave 
the righteous when they die? As “ joy in the 
Holy Ghost” is a characteristic of religion 
upon earth, will the religion of heaven be des¬ 
titute of that joy? Since the first and second 
persons of the trinity have a work to do for 
heavenly beings, will not the third person also 


236 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


share in that work! Merely because redemp¬ 
tion is ended, does it follow that the mission 
of the Spirit is ended! Is there not a work of 
the Spirit that is necessary, though it be not 
redemptive! Since the Incarnate Word is the 
objective medium which connects pure minds 
with God, is not the Divine Spirit the sub¬ 
jective medium which connects pure minds 
with him! Can the work of the heavenly 
Mediator be effectual in souls, if the Spirit is 
not with them! 

We learn from Scripture that there is an 
order of working among the persons of the trin¬ 
ity. “ The beginning of divine operations is 
assigned unto the Father, as he is the fountain 
of Deity itself. The subsisting, establishing, 
and upholding of all things is ascribed unto 
the Son. And the finishing and perfecting of 
all these works is ascribed to the Holy Ghost:” * 
With this arrangement, the entire universe of 
matter and the entire universe of mind can 
only reach completion through the agency of 
the Divine Spirit. He is the invisible Artist 
who beautifies and finishes the divine works. 
Creation and redemption alike demand his 
presence. Religion can neither begin nor con¬ 
tinue without supernatural power. Absolute 
goodness belongs only to the Deity. The 

Owen, “On the Spirit,” book i., chap. iv. 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH THE VISION OF GOD. 237 

highest created being is only relatively and 
conditionally good; never good without God. 
A religion that could spring up in the soul 
from the working of blank faculties would be 
a dry affair, having not the tone and quality 
of godliness. In order to have a suitable basis 
for communion with God, there must be a 
godly element in the soul. The normal state 
of creaturely minds is when they are filled 
with the Spirit. 

As making it certain that the work of the 
Spirit is not confined to fallen man, we know 
that the Sinless Saviour was “ full of the Holy 
Ghost.” If he could not act without the Spirit, 
it is doubly certain that glorified saints cannot 
act without him. We might suppose that the 
human nature of Christ would be sustained by 
his divine nature, and yet according to the 
order of God he must come under “ the power 
of the Spirit.” There is reason to believe that 
our first parents were spiritually endowed when 
they were created. The gift of the Spirit 
antedates redemption, and is continued after 
redemption has passed away. “As the union 
of natures in the person of Christ can never 
be dissolved, so, in virtue of the mediatorial 
office of Christ, the Holy Ghost dwells forever 
in his kingdom.”* When the Eedeemer en- 

* Martensen, “ Christian Dogmatics,” p. 333. 


238 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


couraged liis disciples with the statement that 
the Comforter would come to them, and “ abide 
with them for ever” it is just possible that the 
words “ for ever ” should be understood liter¬ 
ally and not figuratively. 

At any rate, beholding the power of the 
Spirit as manifested in the life of Christ, we 
can have some idea of the richness of mind 
and character which will distinguish the in¬ 
habitants of heaven, they being animated by 
the same power. The divine light that will 
flood the intellect and the divine life that will 
quicken the heart, will give such clearness of 
vision and such activity of soul as will make 
the highest type of piety upon earth to appear 
quite low. The miracles of life and of love 
that will characterize the heavenly state we 
cannot even imagine. The excellencies of the 
Deity will be apprehended with new power 
under the eternal ministry of the Blessed 
Spirit. 

Thus the vision of God and the doctrine of 
the trinity go together. Each person of the 
Godhead fits the purified soul, and the glorious 
three in one will be the heaven of that soul 
forever. The three faces of God seem to fur¬ 
nish the plan for the grand theology of the 
endless life. “It may be affirmed that the 
economy of human salvation has, to the human 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH THE VISION OF GOD. 239 


family , so signalized the distinction of the 
Triune Nature, that it will not again be lost 
sight of; but rather will be more and more 
evolved in the view of the redeemed race. 
This at least may readily be supposed, that 
human minds shall find all their sense of safety, 
and all the calmness of their joy, to spring 
from their knowledge of the Great Mystery, of 
which on earth they had received the rudi¬ 
ments, and which heaven shall much more 
develop.” * 

Wonderful Being! thy glories we cannot 
recount. We only know that thou art supreme 
excellence, and that thy loveliness is fairer 
than all fair things. We are lifted up by the 
contemplation of thy glory, and sent forward 
on rapid wing by the inspiration that comes 
from it. Touched by thy nature we have an 
expansion of soul, and a most exalted excite¬ 
ment thrills us as if heaven had come to greet 
us on our way. We hunger for eternal de¬ 
lights, and look evermore for the great morn¬ 
ing to come. When the king of seraphs and 
of saints appears it will be the sunrise of glory. 
The last moment of earth will usher in the 
first moment of heaven. A sigh ascends from 
our heart in view of the littleness of time. 
May the Blessed One guide us in our path, and 

* Taylor, “Saturday Evening,” p. 326. 


240 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


his shadow cover us on the scorching days of 
life. We shall wander no more when he fills 
the soul with his love. Happiness shall then 
gild the hours, and we shall be at rest with the 
Lord. 


CHAPTEB IL 


THE SAVED ABE BLESSED WITH SINLESS CHAB- 
ACTEB. 

A fine religious instinct enables one to strike 
off many true things respecting heaven, while 
without that instinct the Biblical statements 
relating to the subject avail but little. The 
religious instinct has a law of its own by which 
it is guided, and because of that law it beholds 
excellencies which the common mind never 
detects. There is a refinement about the pure 
religious instinct which enables it to see 
heavenly beauties at once, as if lingering rays 
of glory were always around it, giving it an 
aptitude for these things. As the musician, 
the painter, and the poet cannot reach perfec¬ 
tion in their art by the mere study of princi¬ 
ples, but rather by the intuitional working of 
their genius, so it is with the Christian in his 
attempts to picture the celestial life. The well- 
endowed heavenly mind contains within itself 
a prophecy of the divine kingdom. It seems 
to be ever bending over towards that empire; 


242 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


its tastes and its tendencies are in that direc¬ 
tion; and the feeling goes with it that its 
aspirations are to find their realization there, 
and not here. Saintly spirits like Samuel 
Rutherford and Archbishop Leighton have 
about them the air of the upper kingdom, and 
so they think and speak of it as natives, and 
not as strangers. They seem to be ever away 
to those fair climes, bidding us to come that 
we may dwell in the midst of peace. 

A glance at the pure character of Madame 
Gruyon may help to bring us round to the 
study of the subject that is before us. “ As 
to my own state,” she remarks, “ it is difficult 
for me to describe it. Every inward motion, 
originating from self, seemed to be taken away 
and lost; so much so, that all the soul’s move¬ 
ments and actions were now in Grod, under the 
dominion of his will, and entirely in union 
with him; the soul living in and of Grod, as 
the body lives in and of the air it breathes. 
Nothing entered into my imagination but what 
the Lord was pleased to bring; my heart, as it 
seemed to me, was pure; my will was firmly 
established in one direction. Human lan¬ 
guage cannot well describe this state. Grod 
only knows perfectly what it is.” # 

Although souls that are living upon the 

* Upham, “Life of Madame Guyon,” vol. i., p. 338. 


THE SAVE!) BLESSED WITH SINLESS CHARACTER. 243 


lowest plane of Christian life may have no 
great desire for a heaven of spotless purity, 
wishing rather to be charmed by its visible 
glories, it is none the less attractive to those 
persons who have felt the evil of sin, and long 
for holiness as the chief good. While it is 
admitted that a rich materialism is connected 
with heaven, sufficient to regale the senses 
and the imagination of those who live there, 
its prime characteristics are spiritual. That 
the Bible has high-wrought metaphors respect¬ 
ing the celestial country is true, as that is the 
only style which can lift us up towards a 
greatness which cannot be literally described. 
Jamblichus says, u Things more excellent than 
every image, are expressed through images.” 
Figures of speech may heighten spirituality. 
One thing is certain, that no appeal is ever 
made to the lower nature of man in any of the 
Biblical descriptions of paradise, showing that 
they differ from the paradise of Mohammed. 
Note a medium passage from the Koran: “ As 
for the servants of God, they shall have a cer¬ 
tain provision in paradise, namely, delicious 
fruits: and they shall be honored: they shall 
be placed in gardens of pleasure, leaning on 
couches, opposite to one another: a cup shall 
be carried round unto them, filled from a lim¬ 
pid fountain, for the delight of those who 


244 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


drink: it shall not oppress the understanding, 
neither shall they be inebriated therewith. 
And near them shall lie the virgins of paradise, 
refraining their looks from beholding any be¬ 
sides their spouses, having large black eyes, and 
resembling the eggs of an ostrich covered 
with feathers from the dust.” * 

I. SINLESS CHARACTER IS THE PERFECTION OF 
ORDER. 

Sin is disorder. One sin of the angels com¬ 
pletely unhinged their minds. The initial sin 
devoured the collective good of the soul, leav¬ 
ing neither hope nor help for the doomed 
spirit. Those first immortals of heaven were 
most surely converted to sin; entering the 
kingdom of death by an act that was wholly 
their own; there being nothing that shows 
such fearful creative power by the finite mind 
as the absolute choice of sin. What was true 
of the first sin of the angels was equally true 
of the first sin of man. 

What a wonderful moment that will be 
when the redeemed soul shall have the clear 
consciousness that sin is gone, and that holi¬ 
ness has taken the place of it! The final act 
of God in perfecting the human spirit would 
seem to be of a higher grade than all his pre- 

* Sale’s “Koran,” chap, xxxvii., p. 367. 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH SINLESS CHARACTER. 245 


vious acts, just because now the work is 
finished , and the soul begins the journey of 
eternal ages with nothing to check it, but with 
a movement to hasten it forward that is com¬ 
plete. The faculties which were once in a 
state of antagonism are now in a state of har¬ 
mony. The decisions of the intellect do not 
clash with the feelings of the heart, and the 
commands of the conscience do not go con¬ 
trary to the bent of the will. The imagination 
is the home of beautiful ideals. The propen¬ 
sities and desires are heavenly instead of 
earthly. The pure reason seems like the 
golden candle-stick in the sanctuary of the 
soul whose light is from Glod, and never goes 
out. Each impulse and thought, each power 
and principle, are a celestial choir chanting 
the psalms of Eternal Love. Ransomed man 
is divine order. Holiness is the universal 
principle and the universal ruler. The entire 
soul being in a perfect condition, perfect action 
flows from it. Not only is the mind harmon¬ 
ized, but it is in a state of harmony with all 
the minds of heaven. Then it is fastened by 
a golden chain to the eternal order of Grod, 
and so finite and Infinite march on together 
with the same ultimate end. 


246 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


n. SINLESS CHARACTER IS THE PERFECTION OF 
LIFE. 

Although the human being even in heaven 
might be viewed as animated by different 
kinds of life, yet the life of holiness is highest 
and all-embracing, and is alone worthy of the 
name of life. Mere existence forever is a very 
different thing from holy living forever. There 
can be no eternal holiness without eternal ex¬ 
istence, but there may be eternal existence 
without eternal holines. Life in the Gospel 
sense expresses all good , just as death expresses 
all evil. The Scripture intimates that the 
righteous are to be “ filled with all the fulness 
of God.” Souls in their totality are to be 
instinct with divine life. They take the full 
step and strike the mark each time. They are 
even to reach “ unto the measure of the stature 
of the fulness of Christ.” That is surely a 
grand life. Christ is the ideal of all ideals, 
and having taken in hand to save lost men he 
lifts them up to his own perfection. When 
we allow ourselves to have courage to face 
God’s infinite mercy, we can see that a slight 
would be cast upon it if his redemption did 
not transform us into complete men. 

There are principles of biology which may 
be used to illustrate the life of heavenly souls. 


'THE SAVED BLESSED WITH SINLESS CHARACTER. 247 


l. There is the fact of heredity. The saints 
are “ horn of God.” They belong to the race 
of twice-born men; first generated, then re¬ 
generated. Their character and action are 
godlike. 2. They have a perfect environment. 
There is “ the land of the silver sky,” which 
contains excellencies adapted to both mind 
and body. Then there are the unnumbered 
tribes of saints and seraphim: these influence 
the soul. The triune God, however, is the 
great environment. He is both source and 
sustainer of life. 3. Heavenly souls have a 
complete connection with this environment. 
They consequently receive all that is necessary 
to their eternal well-being. 4. Their life is in 
proportion to what they draw from the foun¬ 
tain of good. The larger they grow, the more 
they want and the more they receive. All the 
conditions being complete, there is complete 
life. 

m. SINLESS CHARACTER IS THE PERFECTION OF 

LOVELINESS. 

The holiness of heaven is associated in our 
mind with brightness. The pure is attractive. 
We are always pleased with the innocence of 
childhood. If we are repelled by a good man, 
it is because he has repellent qualities. Even 
the goodness that is in him loses its lustre by 


248 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


reason of the shadow of sin. Celestial charac¬ 
ter is finished, and so it charms. It has a 
freshness and ruddy hue, reminding one of 
health and the spring days of heaven. A feel¬ 
ing of warmth comes over us by the mere 
thought of it. “ How pleasing a spectacle will 
it be when the glorified soul shall dwell in the 
contemplation of itself! view itself round on 
every part, turn its eye from glory to glory, 
from beauty to beauty, from one excellency 
to another; and trace over the whole draught 
of this image, this so exquisite piece of divine 
workmanship, drawn out in its full perfection 
upon itself! when the glorified eye, and 
divinely enlightened and inspirited mind, shall 
apply itself to criticise and make a judgment 
upon every several lineament, every touch 
and stroke; shall stay itself and scrupulously 
insist upon every part; view at leisure every 
character of glory the blessed God hath in- 
stamped upon it,—how will this likeness now 
satisfy! ” * 

The holiness of the saints is the perfection of 
loveliness because there is not a single part of 
the mind that is free from its power. Knowl¬ 
edge has no such all-embracing quality. It 
does influence directly or indirectly every 
faculty of the mind, but it does not spread an 

* Howe, “The Blessedness of tlie Righteous,” chap. ix. 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH SINLESS CHARACTER. 249 

atmosphere over the entire soul like holiness, 
making every plan to be pure and every pict¬ 
ure of the imagination to be holy. We say 
that no man is a Christian unless he loves 
God supremely, and yet love may be supreme 
at the very time a person is in an imperfect 
moral state. The meaning of supreme love, 
therefore, must be that it has the ascendency 
in the soul, has the governing power, the ma¬ 
jority is on the side of it. The fact, however, 
that sin is found in the person who loves su¬ 
premely, makes it evident that he does not 
love God with all the heart, soul, mind, and 
strength. The love, then, of saved men ex¬ 
presses totality; it fills the soul. “Once I 
dreamed,” says Dr. Payson, “ of being trans¬ 
ported to heaven; and being surprised to find 
myself so calm and tranquil in the midst of 
my happiness, I inquired the cause. The reply 
was: ‘When you were on earth, you re¬ 
sembled a bottle but partly filled with water, 
which was agitated by the least motion—now 
you are like the same bottle filled to the brim, 
which cannot be disturbed.’ ” 

IV. SINLESS CHARACTER IS THE PERFECTION OF 
SECURITY. 

It is a most blessed thought that the sons 
of heaven are absolutely safe, it making no 


250 GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 

difference what may be the changes during 
the roll of endless time. Not for a century or 
a thousand years are they saved, but they are 
eternally saved. There is no place for the 
working of the painful emotions of anxiety 
and fear. There is no probation in heaven: 
trial ended with the earthly life. There is 
nothing now but fruition. If you say it impos¬ 
sible that the redeemed may sin, I say it is 
certain that they will not sin. They have been 
trained. They knew evil by experience, and 
turned from it. They preferred Grod to all 
things else. The mind at length was set in 
purity, and lived in it. When the soul is 
weighted with holiness, there can be no failure. 
If the intellect completely receives truth, if 
the heart completely loves truth, and if the 
will completely follows truth, how can the soul 
sink into evil ? When pure habits are added 
to pure habits until perfect fixedness in charac¬ 
ter is reached, that fixed character is eternal. 
“He that is righteous, let him be righteous 
still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” 
Permanent character, good or bad, will never 
change. 

Redeemed men are more secure than Adam 
in his state of innocency. Adam fell; fell 
easily, and fell quickly; but the saints in 
heaven do not fall. Thus man under grace is 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH SINLESS CHARACTER. 251 


stronger than man under law. Let us suppose 
the existence of a vase of beautiful workman¬ 
ship. When it was first made it astonished 
every beholder. A thousand figures were on 
it; some large, and some so small that they 
could not be seen with the naked eye. No one 
figure was like any other, and each was com¬ 
plete in itself. It was the only vase of the 
kind in existence, and its value could not be 
equalled by anything upon earth. On a cer¬ 
tain day it was broken into ten thousand 
pieces. The loss was terrible, and hope seemed 
to vanish away forever. But mark this: The 
maker of the vase gathered up each fragment. 
All was confusion. But he united each piece, 
and restored the vase to its former condition. 
By looking at it no one could know that it had 
ever been broken. Yea, more than this, the 
vase was improved. It was not possible now 
to break it. Such a vase is redeemed man. 
“ Where sin abounded, grace did much more 
abound.” 

V. SINLESS CHARACTER IS THE PERFECTION OF 
HEAVEN. 

While heaven may be viewed as a great 
galaxy of excellencies, its chief excellence is 
holiness. This shines brighter to the spiritual 
mind and satisfies it more completely than all 


252 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


things else. Holiness is not merely an entity 
in the sonl by itself. It has a necessary con¬ 
nection with God and with the beings he has 
created, and cannot exist without that connec¬ 
tion. There are celestial glories that begin 
and end, and consequently they possess only 
a subordinate worth, but holiness will never 
end and will never lose its central place. God 
is a being of infinite perfections, and yet we 
must admit that the divine holiness has a worth 
which does not belong to any other of the 
divine attributes. It is this which gives char¬ 
acter to the whole nature of God, and which 
makes him to stand out before the universe as 
Infinite Love. Might would be right if it were 
not for goodness. “ Power is God’s hand and 
arm; omniscience his eye; mercy his bowels; 
eternity his duration; holiness his beauty.” 
There is no quality which conducts us so 
quickly to God as holiness. There are excel¬ 
lencies which compel us to take a vast circuit 
before they bring us to the First Fair, but 
with holiness we are face to face with God. 
Holiness is heaven. u There may be palms of 
triumph; there may be crowns of unfading 
lustre; there may be pavements of emerald, 
and rivers of pleasure, and groves of surpass¬ 
ing loveliness, and palaces of delight, and high 
arches in heaven which ring with sweetest 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH SINLESS CHARACTER. 253 


melody—but, mainly and essentially, it is a 
moral glory wliieli is lighted up there; it is 
virtue which blooms and is immortal there; 
it is the goodness by which the spirits of the 
holy are regulated here, it is this which forms 
the beatitude of eternity. The righteous now, 
who, when they die and rise again, shah be 
righteous still, have heaven already in their 
bosoms; and when they enter within its por¬ 
tals, they carry the very being and substance 
of its blessedness along with them—the char¬ 
acter which is itself the whole of heaven’s 
worth, the character which is the very essence 
of heaven’s enjoyments.” * We are taught to 
pray, “ Thy will be done in earth, as it is in 
heaven.” This gives us the fundamental con¬ 
ception of heaven. The persons there do 
God’s will. The law of God is the law of 
heaven, and there is no heaven unless that 
law is kept. Holy character, therefore, is the 
perfection of heaven. 

* Chalmers, Sermon on “Heaven a Character and not a 
Locality.” 


CHAPTER III. 


THE SAVED ARE BLESSED WITH GREAT POWER. 

The instant a good soul enters eternity it 
will be the subject of a great awakening. The 
transition from the world of sense to the world 
of spirit is so great that the mind is aroused 
in the whole circle of its being. It seems as 
if real life had just appeared. Every wheel 
of the soul is intense with energy. Power in 
each faculty is now understood as it never 
was understood before. There is all the fresh¬ 
ness and clearness of a new revelation. The 
saved immortal has such a knowledge of him¬ 
self as to wonder whether he is the same being 
who an hour before was dying. Hidden treas¬ 
ures of the soul have just come within the 
range of consciousness: that discovery sends 
a quickening force through and through the 
mind. The sense of power, however, is not 
bewildering, not impetuous. It is rather like 
the silent power of worlds in motion; like the 
movement of the angel’s wing that is never 
heard; like the self-contained energy of Grod 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH GREAT POWER. 255 


that has no jar. This newly awakened activ¬ 
ity is simply the beginning of heaven. It is 
the first breath of the eternal morning; the 
initial revival of paradise; the inspiring salu¬ 
tation of the life that is everlasting. One is 
prepared by it for what is to come; set in an 
attitude for the infinite good; girding up the 
loins for the journey of ages. The fact that 
God is the all-embracing reality in heaven, 
makes it certain that there will he a great 
increase of power by the continuous flow of 
divine energy into the soul. The finite spirit 
and the Infinite are there so blended together 
in harmony that supernatural communications 
are the necessary result of that union. There 
are thousands of tendencies in the human soul 
which branch off from the intellect, heart, and 
will, and possibly thousands more which are 
not accounted for by these faculties, and to 
have such a nature immersed in God is power 
to the full measure of capacity. Then, too, 
when such a mind is active as well as recep¬ 
tive, so that the Supreme Being becomes the 
chief object of contemplation, there is inten¬ 
sity of soul from the knowledge we have gained 
respecting God. 

Besides the fact of divine immanence, which 
in its highest sense is peculiar to heaven, there 
are powers great and manifold waiting with 


256 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


eagerness the advent of the soul into paradise. 
The world of glory with its grand system of 
materialism, the wonderful forms of life that 
will be seen for the first time, the angelic 
hosts who have dwelt there from the begin¬ 
ning of days, the countless throng of saints 
who have come there from all the nations, the 
royal strangers who may be visiting the cap¬ 
ital from distant planets, the wondrous work 
and worship of the entire celestial company, 
the law and government of that divine realm, 
the Son of God in the midst of splendor as 
the central object,—these will thrill the soul 
with the loftiest kind of inspiration. 

It should be noted also that sight and insight , 
instead of faith, will characterize ransomed 
men. By this means every external power 
will strike the mind with full force. There 
are energies that reach us but faintly in our 
present state, and energies that never reach 
us at all because there is no channel for them. 
When once we enter the land of open vision 
our whole being shall be transformed and 
electrified. In a sense beyond our present 
reckoning we shall see all things in God, and 
see God in all things. We are very much like 
children who have always lived in a deep 
extended mine, knowing nothing of the upper 
world experimentally with its fields and 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH GREAT POWER. 257 

flowers, its seas and cities, and its far-away 
sunsets which herald the night and the coming 
of the stars. 

There will no doubt be a new language for * 
the sons of Grod in heaven, and that new lan¬ 
guage will fit precisely the sanctified mind. 
There is not a single dialect of universal man 
that is suited to express every phase of the 
human spirit. Words may be shaped and 
linked together in the best way possible, and 
yet certain movements of the soul will not 
be expressed with clearness. A vast amount 
of confusion and debate has resulted from the 
imperfection of language. Words may be 
lighted up by metaphor, having about them 
music, rhythm, and ethereal power, and yet 
not be the proper vehicle to carry the treas¬ 
ures of the mind. There are words which 
pass current as pure gold and are supposed 
to bear the image and superscription of spirit¬ 
ual qualities, but when carefully examined 
they have neither the true weight nor the true 
character. If we could know all that pertains 
to heaven, we could not put that knowledge 
into human speech. It is absolutely neces¬ 
sary,. therefore, that there should be some high 
language, divine in its nature, which will be 
a perfect medium of communication between 
the saints in heaven; a language that can 


258 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


take the contents of the soul and tell just 
what they are, and that will be a fit instru¬ 
ment for expressing the excellencies of the 
upper world and the glories of the Eternal 
God. Gifted with such a language, it can 
easily be seen how the whole being of redeemed 
man will be energized and made to press for¬ 
ward with all the alacrity of the burning ser¬ 
aphim. 

Looking now into the soul itself, a very 
great power is its immaculate purity. A holy 
nature is power concentrated; dynamic life 
through and through. Even upon earth we 
notice how vital godliness arouses the mind 
that had been sleeping for years; changes the 
very countenance, and presents to the world 
a new man. How much greater will be the 
effect when character is complete, and but one 
energy reigns in the soul! The potency of 
righteousness will never be idle in the midst 
of retired bliss, but rather giving tone and 
tendency to all that is done. There will be a 
singleness of aim to the immaculate spirit that 
will express the sum of its power. 

The creative faculty will also hold up before 
the mind finished ideals , and these will stimu¬ 
late it by their brilliancy and perfection. Men 
in general are not aware of the power which 
belongs to a cultivated and pure imagination, 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH GREAT POWER. 259 


just because that faculty is so wayward in the 
present life. In the heavenly state it will be 
a source of exalted inspiration. Its inventive 
power will open up avenues of thought and 
goodness. It will brighten and beautify ob¬ 
jects, and will exert a queenly influence over 
the faculties. It will in certain cases be more 
penetrating than the understanding; antici¬ 
pating truth before logic has reached the end 
of its chain. Its ideals will charm and cheer 
the mind. These will not form a kind of fairy 
land where the soul will dream away its mo¬ 
ments ; but the ideal will become real with all 
the speed of the quickened spirit. 

The perfect memory of the saved soul will be 
a great power. In the operations of the hu¬ 
man mind nothing is ever lost. Our thoughts 
and feelings which we had yesterday may be 
forgotten to-day, but remembered to-morrow, 
showing that they were not destroyed. There 
is a vast amount of knowledge treasured up in 
the mind of which the person is not aware, 
and it will continue to be hidden until the 
proper occasions lift it into the light. All 
men are greater than they appear; possibly 
many are worse than they appear; perhaps 
some are better than they appear. The realm 
that is concealed is more extended than the 
realm that is revealed. Memory in the future 


260 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


state will be clear, minute, and retentive. 
That millions of things can be remembered 
with ease will add force to the intellect, the 
emotions, and the will. The entire mind will 
be a kind of luminous energy, quick and com¬ 
prehensive. Such views will not seem like 
speculations when it is considered that men 
have remembered what they read, heard, and 
saw, and that illiterate persons in high fever 
have spoken in foreign languages, which no 
one ever heard them speak while in health. 
Even the insane and persons asleep have aston¬ 
ished spectators by manifestations of knowl¬ 
edge which no one imagined they possessed. 
Such feats of memory here, suggest what may 
be expected hereafter. Even the wicked will 
find the books opened on the great day of 
judgment, compelled to read page after page 
of their mental history. 

It is a question whether a perfect memory 
would be a gain to fallen beings in a world 
like the present; whether the soul would not 
be petrified by the vision of itself, and thus 
unmanned for the incumbent duties of life. 
The fact that we are in a state of probation 
makes it necessary that every force, whether 
of nature or of grace, should just go so far, 
and then stop. One might be paralyzed by 
a multitude of objects striking the mind; 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH GREAT POWER. 261 


annihilating as it were its spontaneity and 
freedom. A merciful probation carried for¬ 
ward in such a way would be changed into a 
punitive system; spirits would be doomed 
and darkened in the midst of noon-day light, 
and overwhelmed by the steady glaring at 
their sin and guilt. 

The intellectual life of heaven may now be 
noticed. That intellectual life will fill the 
mind. The immortal spirit will seem like the 
angel standing in the sun. Clearness will 
make the objects of thought to assume their 
proper place, form, and character. There will 
be a sense of ease in the working of the mind 
which was never felt during the most favored 
moments of time, and a quickness of appre¬ 
hension that is peculiar to the heavenly state. 
Great sections of truth will be struck off with 
unusual rapidity; this in marked contrast with 
certain strained efforts in the present life. 
Many a time we put forth our entire strength 
so as to reach a thought, and yet do not reach 
it. A feeling may arise of great value, and 
we may do our best to express it, but we fail. 
Thus we are hampered, and our total self-hood 
does not come forth. We are not complete 
men, but men in a state of partial captivity. 
President Edwards had an experience of this 
kind. He says, “ The inward ardor of niy soul 


262 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


seemed to be hindered and pent up, and could 
not freely flame out as it would. I used often 
to think, how in heaven this principle should 
freely and fully vent and express itself.”* 
Something like intuition will characterize cer¬ 
tain acts of the understanding; this power 
aiding and hastening the logical process. The 
soul will have movements which will make 
one think of divine attributes; imaging these 
as far as the finite spirit can do so. It may 
grasp many things at once, instead of by the 
slow process of one thing at a time. 

What may be called the continuity of intel¬ 
lectual life will be a new feature of the eternal 
state, opening up realms of truth that never 
could be opened up here. Our working day 
is short, and each night we must rest. But 
in the kingdom of pure life and thought there 
will be no night. The liberated spirit can 
move onward with no break. Studies can be 
entered upon and finished, as it were, at one 
sitting, whether the time be a week, month, or 
year. There may be themes which will take 
a century to unfold, but such continuity will 
not be tiresome. The mind will seem rather 
to be in its true element; delighted all the 
way until the end, and doubly delighted when 
the finished good stands forth in its presence. 

* “Life,” prefixed to his Works, p. 18. 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH GREAT POWER. 263 


Man while upon earth is hemmed in by limit¬ 
ations. What an enlargement there will be 
when he can expatiate in a wider sphere, and 
when no impediment shall hinder him in all 
his course. 

It falls to us now to consider how heavenly 
corporeity increases the power of mind. The 
fact that redeemed souls shall possess bodies 
“ like unto Christ’s glorious body,” is an inti¬ 
mation that notable perfections will character¬ 
ize them. To whatever uses the future body 
will be put, it will have complete adaptation 
to the soul; never a hindrance, but always a 
help. Just what will be its component parts 
we do not know. The glorified body may be 
composed of the one elementary substance; 
indestructible, simple in structure, fitted for 
all worlds, and marvellous in power. The 
human form will be retained: Adam had it: 
Christ has it. Still what may be the variations 
of perfect corporeity we cannot tell. The hu¬ 
man type may be preserved in the midst of 
great modifications. The Redeemer in glory 
is different from the Redeemer in a state of 
humiliation. The fact that the celestial body 
is to be the instrument and habitation of the 
soul forever, makes it probable that it will 
have a multiplicity of characteristics that are 
not found in the earthly bodv. Instead of five 


264 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


senses, there may be fifty. Each sense, 
whether new or old, will possess great power. 
The eye may be able to detect the most remote 
and the most minute objects with equal ease 
and fulness, and the ear may catch sounds 
that never reach us here. New properties of 
matter will be perceived by new senses. The 
future body may even contain excellencies 
which at first are latent, but which in years to 
come leap forth, having found the objects for 
which they were fitted. 

As “ flesh and blood cannot inherit the king¬ 
dom of God,” there must be many parts of our 
earthly body which never can be reproduced 
in the one that is heavenly. These parts were 
but for a time, and so when they answered 
their purpose they disappeared. It is fair to 
think also that there are tendencies, tastes, 
feelings, and propensities of the soul that are 
temporary in their nature. They are suited 
to this world, but are not adapted to the world 
of life. Possibly, however, some of these early 
characteristics may shoot up into original 
forms of development, doing a work that was 
necessary in the wondrous kingdom of the 
future. 

To a thoughtful person it even seems that 
the earth and the air are two volumes of hu¬ 
man history, as if each word and act of uni- 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH GREAT POWER. 265 

versal man had been printed there, needing 
only eyes of requisite power to read the writ¬ 
ing. The sounds even which have issued forth 
from mortal creatures, whether of joy or sor¬ 
row, may all be stored up as in one great in¬ 
strument, waiting for the advent of some 
bright to-morrow when they may be heard. 
The wonders of the phonograph suggest as 
much as that. “It seems also that photo¬ 
graphic influence pervades all nature. It may 
imprint upon the world around us our features, 
as they are modified by various passions, and 
thus fill nature with daguerreotype impressions 
of all our actions that are performed in day¬ 
light. It may be that there are tests by which 
nature, more skilfully than any human photo¬ 
graphist, can bring out and fix those portraits, 
so that acuter senses than ours shall see them, 
as on a great canvas, spread over the material 
universe. Perhaps, too, they may never fade 
from that canvas, but become specimens in 
the great picture gallery of eternity.” * 

The spiritual body will no doubt have such 
lightness and force that it can fly from world 
to world, thus enabling the soul to behold the 
wonders of the Almighty. The stimulus pro¬ 
ceeding from it will excite the mind. The 
glorified body may be a suggestive organ, 

* Hitchcock, “Religion of Geology,” p. 426. 


266 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


making the laws of association to work with 
quickness, and thus aiding the memory and 
brightening the imagination. It may even be 
so constituted as to be an epitome of the mate¬ 
rial creation, a kind of treasury for the soul, 
the voice and music of the spirit. Energy 
will be at its height each moment, and the 
tendency will be to hasten forward on rapid 
wing. The soul will evidently be enlarged 
and quickened by its possession of a perfect 
body, having also a class of emotions and 
thoughts of a high order, which never could 
arise in a mind that was separated from mat¬ 
ter. 

When the heightened power of redeemed 
man is considered, it will need principle of the 
strongest kind to control it. As it respects 
the power of the celestial body, it must be 
regulated by a well-balanced mind. Its native 
fire left to itself might burn with such inten¬ 
sity as to consume the physical organism. No 
doubt the mere exercise of power in the body 
is pleasant, and just for that reason it must be 
guided. Though the movement of physical 
life is under law, and there can be no danger 
from it, yet the impelling power, like energy 
in general, is of itself blind, and must be con¬ 
trolled by a spirit back of it. Power can be a 
faithful servant if it has a faithful master. 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH GREAT POWER. 267 

The body, however, is not the only part that 
needs to be watched. The enhanced power 
of the soul, by reason of its connection with 
the body, demands a governing principle. 
Mind viewed abstractly also is power, but if it 
is not properly directed it becomes dangerous. 
Even the divine omnipotence must be regu¬ 
lated by wisdom and goodness. 


CHAPTER IV. 


THE SAVED ARE BLESSED WITH CAPABILITIES OF 
ENDLESS PROGRESS. 

It is sometimes asked, “ Do yon believe that 
there will be progress in heaven ? v The per¬ 
sons who propose this question seem to think 
that inasmuch as the saints are holy and 
happy, no change can pass over them forever: 
being perfect ends the matter. There is an 
impression that to speak of progress in those 
who are redeemed is to cast a slight upon the 
Redeemer; as if they still needed something 
done for them after they are saved. It is 
therefore considered better to view the men of 
heaven as lifted up to the summit of being at 
once, and fixed there in the midst of glory 
forever, the soul being rounded out to a ful¬ 
ness which admits of no addition. 

There is a species of mysticism about this 
view. It leads one almost to think of Brah- 
minical pantheism, when the soul at last drops 
into the Infinite Blessedness and can go no 
farther. As far as moral perfection is con- 


BLESSED WITH ABILITY FOR ENDLESS PROGRESS. 269 


cerned it is eternal. But as saved men are 
finite their perfection is not absolute. Growth 
is a characteristic of all creaturely minds, and 
it is not possible to fix a point when it will stop. 
The instant a soul reaches heaven its holiness 
is perfect in kind , and yet in degree it will ex¬ 
pand forever. The attempt to set aside end¬ 
less progress by any transcendental perfection 
is contrary to both reason and Scripture. The 
man Christ Jesus was sinless at the beginning 
and sinless all the way through, but at the end 
he had a greater amount of holiness than he 
had at the beginning. He wrought out habits 
of righteousness. These had no place in his 
character at first; so that he was stronger in 
goodness when he died, than when he began 
to live. If this was the case with the Sinless 
Saviour, it is surely no less the case with the 
sinless saints. Their pure habits will be vastly 
stronger at the end of a million of years, than 
they were at the end of the first year in heaven. 
Character also will have more worth. 

Dr. Duff, the distinguished missionary, had 
a striking dream when he was young. “ He 
dreamed, as he lay on the banks of a stream, 
that there shone in the distance a brightness 
surpassing that of the sun. By-and-bye from 
the great light there seemed to approach him 
a magnificent chariot of gold, studded with 


270 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


gems, and drawn by fiery horses. The glory 
overawed him. At last the heavenly chariot 
reached his side, and from its open window 
the Almighty God looked out and addressed 
to him, in the mildest tones, the words, l Come 
up hither; I have work for thee to do? Such a 
call was a fitting commencement of Alexander 
Duffs career.” # In a higher sense God says 
to each saint at death, “Come up hither; I 
have work for thee to do.” 

There is reason to think that all the virtues 
will find a field of action in eternity, so that 
progress will characterize each one of them. 
Not only will there be a place for justice and 
truthfulness, reverence and gratitude, but op¬ 
portunities will be found for the exercise of 
patience and forbearance, fortitude and com¬ 
passion. In some part of the divine empire 
there may be a class of beings who need our 
sympathy and assistance, ^erhaps they are 
on trial and are just on the verge of giving 
way, but by our presence among them and 
words of encouragement they are enabled to 
stand fast for righteousness. The graces 
which we have cultivated upon earth and our 
training while here, may give us just the fit¬ 
ness we need for work among certain of the 
populations of distant worlds. Whether any 

* “Life,” vol. i., p. 13, New York ed, 


BLESSED WITH ABILITY FOR ENDLESS PROGRESS. 271 


other creatures have sinned besides angels and 
men we do not know. If there should be such 
fallen beings, we might be sent to minister to 
them just as the angels of G-od minister to ns. 
It would not be necessary that Christ should 
go among them and die. The one infinite 
atonement would be sufficient. They would 
simply need a strong faith when the story of 
redemption is published to them. But even if 
there is no ground for this speculation, there 
may be orders of intelligence who would be 
vastly benefited by our labors in their behalf. 
The lowest might be lifted up by our influence, 
and the highest might be made still higher by 
our communications. 

There may be a course of action that is 
extraordinary that will call out the soldier 
saints of heaven. Although no created intel¬ 
ligence can ever perform works of supereroga¬ 
tion, yet works that are somewhat daring and 
only necessary during a great emergency may 
be performed by saved men. The redemptive 
work of Christ might suggest the possibility 
of such a lofty style of action. Of course that 
redemptive work stands alone, being out of 
the range of the highest creaturely ability— 
still it may furnish a hint of some unusual 
kind of action that will be necessary during a 
crisis in the affairs of immortality. To walk 


272 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


in the footsteps of Christ as far as the noblest 
of his followers can venture, even by taxing 
their nature, would seem to be no more than 
what should be expected of men who have 
been saved by extraordinary means. There is 
inspiration and pleasure in undertaking what 
may be viewed as the highest deed of love; a 
love that is the fruit of the tree of life that 
was planted on Calvary. As there have ap¬ 
peared during the course of the Christian 
centuries heroes of the faith, so there may 
appear in heaven a class of monumental spirits, 
marking off noted periods in its history. Con¬ 
sidering the great variety of talent in redeemed 
men, it is to be expected that the magnates 
will be sent upon some eventful mission suit¬ 
able to their powers. It is not unlikely, 
however, that the rank and file will have obli¬ 
gations laid upon them of so peculiar a char¬ 
acter that only they themselves can profitably 
manage them. There are ministries of lowli¬ 
ness that are high, and deeds performed in the 
darkness that are bright. Yea, there may be 
service so completely negative m its nature 
that to attend to it with sweetness and faith¬ 
fulness will be worthy of great honor. It is 
just possible, therefore, that every saint in 
heaven will have the opportunity to be or to 
do something that is superlative, and that a 


BLESSED WITH ABILITY FOR ENDLESS PROGRESS. 273 


joy quite peculiar will be the experience of 
each one as the result of this. 

The possessory principle has great power 
in the present life, but in heaven money is not 
known. Wealth is not needed there as a 
means of progress. This opens up an entirely 
new state of things. Education, civilization, 
religion, cannot be carried forward upon earth 
without wealth. Our development here is 
upon a low plane; it is preparatory; there is 
a great deal of scaffolding connected with it: 
the scaffolding is removed when the building 
is finished. The idea of possession in the 
celestial commonwealth will have a higher 
meaning than it has here. Ransomed men 
have truth, love, and God for their treasure. 
The possessory principle is perverted among 
earthly souls. The desire for gold is the desire 
for God misplaced. Men having lost the chief 
good, and restless because of this loss, they 
seize some inferior treasure to take the place 
of it. 

Progress betokens a method. There is first 
the seed, the development of that seed, and the 
fruit as the end of all. This trinal method of 
progress is characteristic of all the kingdoms 
of life. The passage from the rudiments to the 
complete knowledge of a subject will be rapid 
in heaven. Progress at times will bound for- 


274 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


ward as in the multiplication of numbers, 
rather than as in the addition of numbers. 
Not as ten and ten that make twenty, but as 
ten times ten that make a hundred. 

Will not many saved souls have to go 
through a schooling before they can do much 
in the intellectual sphere of eternity? As¬ 
suredly infants and idiotic minds will need 
teachers. Those also who had just knowledge 
enough to admit them into the kingdom will 
need to be trained by higher spirits. It will 
be one of the interesting sights of heaven to 
behold companies of lowly creatures advanc¬ 
ing under the tuition of saints and seraphs. 
Many who began thus so low may in the course 
of time go beyond those who had been more 
highly favored. u There is a legend of an 
artist, who was about to carve from a piece of 
costly sandal-wood an image of the Madonna; 
but the material was intractable—his hand 
seemed to have lost its skill—he could not ap¬ 
proach his ideal. When about to relinquish 
his efforts in despair, a voice in a dream bade 
him shape the figure from the oak-block which 
was about to feed his hearth. He obeyed, and 
produced a masterpiece.” * Who can tell but 
that the Divine Artist may yet shape Out 
of some common mind a masterpiece. It 

* Vaughan, “Hours with the Mystics,” vol. ii., p. 156. 


BLESSED WITH ABILITY FOR ENDLESS PROGRESS. 275 

may be true in heaven as well as upon earth, 
that “the last shall be first, and the first 
last.” 

There may be worlds which have some new 
and striking thought of God to unfold, just as 
this earth has the new and striking thought 
of the incarnation and redemption of Christ . 
The Infinite Being has perfections that are 
entirely beyond our thinking, and information 
respecting some of these may be found in 
realms that were created for the very purpose 
of showing them forth. There may even be 
universes different from each other, and differ¬ 
ent from the one to which we belong, which 
unfold special characteristics of the Godhead. 
There may be invisible universes populous 
with lofty spirits; these lofty spirits mingling 
together in commonwealths that are quite 
peculiar and fitted to illustrate certain glories 
of the Deity. There may be systems of life 
that we cannot even imagine, yet absolutely 
necessary to unfold excellencies of God. Just 
at what point in the roll of eternal years we 
are to place the existing creations, no man 
can tell. A vast series of universes may have 
come, continued, and ended, one after the 
other, before ours was called into being. It 
is certain, at any rate, that God having begun 
to manifest himself, he must continue the 


276 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


manifestation forever, because a Being who is 
limitless never can be fully revealed. 

Age after age, cycle after cycle, the creat- 
urely spirit will be making new attainments. 
Vast as the universe is, there will be a time 
when the contents of it will be mastered by 
the human mind. Millions of years will have 
to pass away before this point is reached; but 
the fact that the creation has a limit, while 
the soul has no limit to its development, makes 
it certain that every truth conveyed by it can 
be known. That will be a wondrous hour 
when all the starry systems can do no more 
for us. It would seem as if there must be a 
pause throughout the creation at that time. 
The wheels of creation would seem to slacken 
their speed, the suns shine with a fainter light 
as if their fires were going out, the voices of 
worlds dying away among the breathless con¬ 
stellations, and the night of disaster coming 
after the day that was so long and wonderful. 
Such must be the case, as far as we can read 
the record. The glorious universe must end; 
and this not merely from a necessity of the 
divine plans, but from the wearing out of the 
system itself. There are evidences of dissolu¬ 
tion. Energy is dissipated, and finds a home 
in the universal ether. It would seem that in 
the far-off years planets will rush toward the 


BLESSED WITH ABILITY FOR ENDLESS PROGRESS. 277 


sun; world will strike against world, and sys¬ 
tem against system; the harmonies of creation 
will he broken np. 

“All but an exceedingly small fraction of 
the light and heat of the sun and stars goes 
out into space and does not return to them 
again, or in other words, the snn and stars 
are slowly cooling. To restore to the snn 
every instant its losses by radiation, the whole 
celestial vault would have to radiate as pow¬ 
erfully as the sun does—in which case the 
earth and the planets would very soon ac¬ 
quire (at their surfaces) the sun’s temperature. 
In the next place, the visible motion of the 
large bodies of the universe is gradually being 
stopped by something which may be denomi¬ 
nated ethereal friction.” “ It is absolutely cer¬ 
tain that life, so far as it is physical, depends 
essentially upon transformations of energy; 
it is also absolutely certain that age after age 
the possibility of such transformations is be¬ 
coming less and less; and, so far as we yet 
know, the final state of the present universe 
must be an aggregation (into one mass) of all 
the matter it contains.” * 

Destruction is certainly a characteristic of 
our earthly system. Whole races perished 
during the pre-Adamite ages by the rising and 

* Stewart and Tait, “ The Unseen Universe,” pp. 165, 127. 


278 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


falling of the earth’s crust. “ Twenty or more 
sweeping destructions occurred,” says Prof. 
Dana, “ besides other partial ones, on this 
continent after the appearance of animal life, 
and a larger number in Europe.” Then the 
fact that creatures devour each other, and the 
other appalling fact that every living thing 
dies. Note also the destruction of property 
and life by tempests on sea and land, by earth¬ 
quakes and volcanoes, by fire and flood. If 
every kind of destruction on this globe is con¬ 
sidered, it will be found to be exceedingly 
great. “ The earth itself and the works that 
are therein shall be burned up.” No doubt 
much of the destruction connected with our 
planet is the result of sin; but even if that is 
counted out, enough remains to show that 
destructions are a peculiarity of the created 
system with its law of change. 

We now reach the thought, that after the 
present universe has ended its mission and 
been destroyed, a new universe will be formed 
out of its ruins, higher in every sense, in order 
to meet the advanced experience of holy be¬ 
ings. This new universe may contain such 
wondrous manifestations of God that it will 
continue through numberless years, meeting 
stage after stage of mental and moral progress. 
Still there must be a time when the lesson will 


BLESSED WITH ABILITY FOR ENDLESS PROGRESS. 279 


be learned perfectly: then a change once more 
will be needed. The nniverse, however, may 
have been so arranged as to have no tendency 
towards destruction; consequently the changes 
needed will be gradual in world after world 
till the whole has been remodelled; the divine 
manifestations thus brightening in splendor 
toward the noon that is never to be reached. 
Whatever may be the methods of God, change 
and progress will be eternal. 

Universal providence will be one of the great 
studies of the endless future, and will have 
an important bearing on the march of souls. 
What a circle of providence that must be which 
grasps the entire created system with all its 
relations, and that through uncounted ages! 
Thoughts will come forth with reference to it 
of such weight and originality as to cause the 
mind to leap in its progress, appealing to every 
faculty in the most healthy manner, and caus¬ 
ing delight to flow through them all. Souls 
thus charmed and intensified by the growing 
wonders of the divine administration will be 
constrained to cry out, “ Great and marvellous 
are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and 
true are thy ways, thou king of saints.” 

Take now a history of the entire universe: 
how our little histories sink out of sight beside 
that. The variety of incidents that must be 


280 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


noticed. The striking nature of many of these. 
The results that work out in the course of 
centuries. The influence that goes from mind 
to mind. The great periods and epochs in the 
march of the history. The laws which govern 
the whole process. The kingly spirits that 
appear at different times. The "bearing of one 
world’s history upon the other parts of the 
universe. Whether there is a single thought 
amidst the universal movement that towers 
above all others and to which they all tend, 
or whether there are several chief thoughts 
that stand out as pyramids on the plains of 
immensity. Then the relation of the collect¬ 
ive history to the purposes of God, and the 
particular divine manifestations that are meant 
to be seen by the creatures. Thus the whole 
ending in a sublime philosophy of history. 

Our progress at any point of eternity will 
show the capacity of the soul at that point to 
behold God. If the whole of our knowledge 
and goodness is collected together at the end 
of countless ages—that knowledge and good¬ 
ness as expressing the totality of our develop¬ 
ment will be the measure of our conception 
of the Deity. The time will come in the far- 
off future when one soul shall know as much 
and enjoy as much as all the inhabitants of 
heaven did know and enjoy at some fixed 


BLESSED WITH ABILITY FOR ENDLESS PROGRESS. 281 


period of the past. The expansion of the 
creaturely spirit goes away beyond all reckon¬ 
ing. All we can say is, that the finite will be 
approaching the Infinite forever. The course 
of the soul through the endless years of heaven 
is a course of developed perfections; and when 
these perfections at any time are headed up 
and brought to unity, then is the soul pre¬ 
pared, as with a mightier telescope than it had 
before, to survey some new star in the won¬ 
drous firmament of God. 


CHAPTER, Y. 


THE SAVED ARE BLESSED WITH THE COMPANY 
OF NOBLE BEINGS. 

It is necessary to caution the reader as we 
enter upon the studies of the present chapter. 
There is a heated interest respecting the friend¬ 
ships of heaven. Persons are charmed by 
what is merely human. They consequently 
forget the chief elements of paradise. Heaven 
is made a sentimental world. The natural 
affections are allowed to have supreme control. 
The ties which bind us here are to bind us 
there forever. The kingdom of glory is simply 
a vast collection of homes. Our caution, then, 
is this, Do not press the relations of life too 
far. The human will not be lost, and yet it 
will be greatly modified in the realm of spirits. 
The fancies of Swedenborg seem to have en¬ 
tered certain minds, and so they are thinking 
of marriages that are spiritual and eternal. 
“We must be careful,” remarks Richard Bax¬ 
ter, “ that we look not for that in the saints 
which is to be found only in Christ, and that 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH NOBLE COMPANIONS. 283 


we expect not too great a part of our comfort 
in the fruition of their society” Just how 
much of the human is to be left behind we do 
not know. Substantially we are to be the 
same beings that we are now; only certain 
preparatory characteristics are to be stripped 
from us. Many things are necessary upon 
earth that are not necessary in heaven. 

Shall we know persons in glory by intuition 
that we never knew here? Can we say at 
once, There is Joshua, there is Luther, there 
is Howard ? The language of certain writers 
implies as much as this. They tell us that the 
three apostles knew Moses and Elias on the 
Mount of Transfiguration. The inference is, 
that they knew them directly . There is no 
evidence of that. The apostles may have 
gained the information from the two heavenly 
men, or the Saviour may have mentioned their 
names. To know persons at first sight in 
heaven, whom we never knew on earth, would 
require a miracle. The most reasonable way 
of looking at the matter is to believe that those 
who were utter strangers to each other must 
become acquainted. This fact of becoming 
acquainted will constitute one of the joys of 
heaven. Persons that were far apart in na¬ 
tionality and time will meet together and form 
new attachments. 


284 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


Shall we not instantly recognize own friends 
in the future life! It must he understood 
that when the saints enter heaven they enter 
a world of souls. In what way do souls com¬ 
municate with each other? No man can telL 
In the present life mind reaches mind through 
the medium of the body. We are never con¬ 
scious of the substance of the soul: we only 
know of its existence by its working. How, 
then, does one disembodied spirit recognize 
another disembodied spirit ? Certain writers 
have supposed that between death and the res¬ 
urrection the soul has a temporary body given 
to it, and so through that medium one heavenly 
being comes in contact with another. There 
is not sufficient evidence to establish this view. 
Must friends, then, be left in ignorance of each 
other ? That does not follow. The mere fact 
that we cannot point out the ivay of communi¬ 
cation between souls, does not prove that 
there is no way. Angels are spirits, and they 
know each other. The good angels know the 
bad, and the bad the good; and both classes 
know human souls, and act upon them. This 
makes it evident that there is a way by which 
one soul can know another, although we can¬ 
not tell hoiv it is done. 

The question, however, remains: Will one 
friend recognize another friend the instant 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH NOBLE COMPANIONS. 285 


they meet? We have not light enough to an¬ 
swer the question. Possibly a moment’s in¬ 
terchange of thought may be needed before one 
person can know the other. Even when the 
soul is clothed with the glorified body, friend 
may not detect friend at once: a word or mo¬ 
tion may be needed. Such slight impediment 
at the beginning is really nothing. After the 
uncertain moment is past, the recognition is 
a blessed reality forever. With the limitations 
mentioned, it may be taken as an accepted 
truth that friends will know each other in 
heaven, and be exceedingly happy in each 
other’s company. The language of the Apostle 
Paul runs in that direction: “What is our 
hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not 
even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus 
Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory 
and joy.” 

Think of the infants who have entered 
heaven. They smiled, suffered, died, and then 
lived forever. They were a kind of unknown 
voyagers entering the sea of time, and then 
the sea of eternity. The sun of earth just 
rose upon them, and then they winged their 
flight to the country of eternal peace. A feel¬ 
ing of awe creeps over us as we think of them. 
They seem like voices that echoed on our ear 
from the summer land of Grod; like angels 


286 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


who made us a visit in the garb of mortals, 
and then went away when we were making 
arrangements to entertain them; like flowers 
that came forth on the first days of spring, but 
a sudden cold nipped them, and they bowed 
their head and died. It would seem as if these 
young immortals must have something about 
them which will proclaim the fact that they 
were infants when they entered the kingdom 
of glory. By this means they would be 
quickly known as a class , while as individuals 
they would have to be discovered just as we 
discover others. 

It is not unlikely that certain men may have 
marks which furnish a hint as to their identity. 
Adam and Eve, as we suppose they were saved 
by faith, may have characteristics which show 
that they were the first parents of the race: 
the only persons who were first holy, then 
sinful, then holy forever. Abel, as a member 
of the first family, as the first matryr, and as 
the first soul that entered heaven, might have 
that about him which suggests who he is. 
The book of Revelation informs us that the 
city of Grod has “ twelve foundations, and in 
them the names of the twelve apostles of the 
Lamb,” perhaps intimating that those favored 
men have peculiarities which point them out. 
We learn also that the writer of the same book 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH NOBLE COMPANIONS. 287 


“ saw under tlie altar the souls of them that 
were slain for the word of God,” thus finely 
hinting that they were known as witnesses for 
Christ. Even a few far-reaching words that 
were spoken on earth may he spoken in heaven. 
These thoughts may have a degree of prob¬ 
ability from the fact that the Jewish people 
never lose the characteristics of their race. 
There may be some hymn with its music that 
was dear to us here, and that hymn may be 
chanted some day on the hill-sides of glory. 
That “ they sing the song of Moses and the 
Lamb ” may bear out such a view. As when 
we have been in some garden full of rich odors 
the fragrance lingers with us after we have 
left it, so when we leave the gardens of earth 
for those of heaven some sweet perfume may 
tarry with us. 

Do the spirits of the departed return to the 
earth that they may minister to its people! 
According to the religion of sentimentalism 
they do come back. In funeral sermons this 
view is sometimes advocated: pretty words 
can be spoken in favor of it. How deeply 
affecting to have a sainted mother return to 
her family of orphan children! caring for them 
when they are exposed to danger, and inspir¬ 
ing them with hope that they may not falter 
by the way. She comforts them in their dis- 


288 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


tress, points them to the sunny land that has 
no night, and at the hour of death accompanies 
them to their home beyond the stars. She is 
more faithful now than she was before, be¬ 
cause sin does not check her and weariness 
does not hinder her in her mission of love. 
However captivating this may be to the feel¬ 
ings and the imagination, the current of Script¬ 
ure is against it. What we have to do for our 
friends must be done while living upon earth. 
“ The night cometh when no man can work ” 
At the final judgment “ every one receives the 
things done in his body , according to that he 
hath done, whether it be good or bad.” If the 
souls of the righteous may come to this earth 
in order to save men, it does not take long to 
reach the thought that they also may go to 
perdition in order to save those who are there. 
Future probation is thus the outcome of this 
fancy. That glorified saints pray for us is 
simply a phase of the same idea, and that we 
should pray to them to aid us, makes it evi¬ 
dent that we are on the same track of think¬ 
ing. 

The following passage is cited as proof that 
the spirits of the departed minister to men: 
“ I fell down to worship before the feet of the 
angel which showed me these things. Then 
saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH NOBLE COMPANIONS. 289 

am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the 
prophets.” It is supposed that the angel men¬ 
tioned here was one of the ancient prophets. 
But that is not the meaning of the language. 
The Revised Version makes it plain: “lam 
a fellow servant with thee, and with thy brethren 
the prophets.” The angel did not belong to 
the prophetic race. He was simply a servant 
of Giod along with them. That the souls of 
the good are angels, or that they are ministering 
spirits, is not the teaching of Scripture. 

Are the saints in heaven cognizant of what 
is transpiring upon this earth? It is stated 
in the Epistle to the Hebrews that “ we are 
compassed about with a great cloud of wit¬ 
nesses.” “A close-pressed cloud-like multi¬ 
tude of spectators,” says Delitzsch, “ is seated 
and watching us on either side.” It is not 
certain that the language will bear this inter¬ 
pretation. The heroic men to whom the pas¬ 
sage refers were witnesses for the truth, and 
not witnesses of us. Ransomed souls can have 
no direct vision of the earth. They may, how¬ 
ever, learn much respecting its affairs from 
the angels, and also from the new saints who 
are ever coming among them. That there is 
“ joy in heaven over one sinner that repent- 
eth ” shows that the redeemed gain knowledge 
relating to this earth. There is no doubt great 


290 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


interest among the celestial inhabitants in re¬ 
gard to the extension of the divine kingdom. 

Although the Bible gives no countenance to 
the ministry of souls, it does give countenance 
to the ministry of angels. Whether each 
pious man has his guardian angel or not we 
cannot say; but we can say that angels do 
guard pious men. “ He shall give his angels 
charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.” 
Some of the ancients believed that around 
those whom the gods loved a cloud was thrown 
to protect them in time of danger. The good 
who were inside of this cloud could look 
through it and see those who would injure 
them; but the peculiarity of it was, that the 
enemies who were outside could not see them: 
they were thus safely sheltered. This inter¬ 
esting thought may symbolize the care which 
God extends to his people. The idea has been 
advanced that angels originally inhabited a 
certain planet; part of their number sinned, 
and as a punishment were cast down to hell; 
others remained holy, and as a reward were 
taken to heaven. They are thus living in 
what may be called their future state , just as 
men from this earth will be in their future 
state after death. There is no evidence for 
this view. Heaven was the original dwelling- 
place of the angels. There some of them fell, 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH NOBLE COMPANIONS. 291 

and were cast out; and there some continued 
holy, and so were allowed to remain in their 
native country. The latter “ are now minis¬ 
tering spirits, sent forth to minister for them 
who shall be heirs of salvation.” 

The friendships of heaven will not be con¬ 
fined to redeemed men. The fact that angels 
bore a part in their salvation will make them 
favored companions. Questions will be asked 
them touching their disinterested labors; and 
as scene after scene is recounted, wonder will 
be expressed, attachment strengthened, and 
thankfulness called forth. Self-denial would 
seem to be a feature of angelic love. It must 
have been a trial to pure spirits to behold so 
much of evil. They had to toil age after age 
amidst the darkness and depravity of fallen 
angels as well as of fallen men. Nothing but 
a passion of benevolence could bear them 
up. 

The cementing principle of heavenly fellow¬ 
ship is oneness. This oneness is perfect in its 
nature, constant in its exercise, and universal 
as including all the inhabitants of heaven. 
The unity of the material creation cannot 
equal the unity of sinless beings. There is a 
degree of friction in the former, but not in the 
latter. The one will finally come to an end 
because of this friction, while the other will 


292 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


continue forever. The union which character¬ 
izes the celestial orders is the reflection of that 
union which appertains to the G-odhead, and 
it seems intended to illustrate that before the 
intelligent universe. Of course the oneness 
of souls can never equal the oneness of the 
divine persons, but it may be approaching 
that through endless time. It is the glory of 
celestial friendships that they become stronger 
forever. The communion, therefore, of mind 
with mind is always fresh, and always struck 
upon a higher key of delight. 

The oneness of men in heaven has certain 
peculiarities. There is the race feeling, which 
angels do not possess. The angels stand off 
in singleness, having no organic relation of 
one with the other. They were created as 
distinct personalities. Men were born, have 
a common life, and the human race are in a 
sense one. The fact also that this entire race 
fell because of the first sin of the first man, 
shows that there is a marked difference be¬ 
tween men and angels. Whatever phases of 
humanity may be dropped, the saints never 
can forget their Adamic origin. Besides this 
race connection, there is a redemptive connec¬ 
tion with Christ. This gives us a new hu¬ 
manity. 

The sight of the collective company of saved 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH NOBLE COMPANIONS. 293 


men must be exceedingly delightful to the 
angelic tribes, and must prompt them to enter 
into the most endearing friendships with such 
favored souls. The fact is even made known 
to us that the angels are greatly benefited by 
the presence of the saints among them. The 
learned Apostle strikes off the thought, that 
“ unto the principalities and powers in 
heavenly places is made known by the Church 
the manifold wisdom of God.” The Church 
of the redeemed is the medium of divine mani¬ 
festation to these exalted intelligences. They 
are enabled to make certain discoveries of the 
glory of God, which could not be made except 
through this channel. The question naturally 
arises just here, whether the angels are an 
order of beings superior to the saints, or 
whether the saints are higher than the angels . 

The angels are a class of unfallen beings. 
They have continued in a state of holiness for 
thousands of years. Their development must 
have been rapid and extended because of their 
purity. How can men who have been crippled 
by sin ever outrun “ the faire folk of God ” ? 
Besides, angels have great power. One of 
them “ smote in the camp of the Assyrians a 
hundred fourscore and five thousand.” Man 
can do nothing like that. We read also that 
man was made “ a little lower than the angels.” 


294 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


That would seem to settle the point of his in¬ 
feriority. But the literal translation of the 
passage is this, “Thou hast made him but 
little lower than God ” The comparison is not 
between man and the angels, but between man 
and God . Every thing is heightened now, 
and we see the reasonableness of the following 
verse—“Thou hast crowned him with glory 
and honor .” “Although the angel is the more 
powerful spirit, man’s spirit is nevertheless 
the richer and the more comprehensive.”* 
There are animal races which have powers 
which no human being can claim, but yet no 
one will venture to say that man is inferior to 
the animal. 

It is significant that the Son of God was 
not to be divine-angelic, but divine-human; 
and equally significant that we are not only 
“ conquer or s,” but u more than conquerors 
through him that loved us.” The possibilities 
of human nature are greater than we usually 
think. We do not grasp the being of man as 
God grasps it, and do not know the eternal 
unfoldings of that being as he knows it. 
Henry Melvill, in his sermon on “Heaven,” 
uses this language: “ I have the highest possi¬ 
ble thoughts in regard to the future dignity 
of man. I believe not that he will be second 

* Martensen, “Christian Dogmatics,” p. 132. 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH NOBLE COMPANIONS. 295 

to any but God. I would not change his place, 
I would not barter his crown, for that of the 
noblest, the first, amongst the angels of heaven. 
For no nature has been brought into so inti¬ 
mate a relation to the divine as the human: 
God has become man, and man therefore, we 
believe, must stand nearest to God. It may 
then be, seeing that, beyond question, there 
will be order throughout eternity, a gradation 
of ranks, a distribution of authority, that the 
saints will be princes in the kingdom of God; 
that through them will the Almighty be 
pleased to carry on much of his government; 
and that angels, who are ‘ ministering spirits ’ 
to them during their moments of probation, 
will attend them as their messengers during 
their ages of triumph.” 

A new revelation of God is made in redemp¬ 
tion, brighter than that which is made in the 
creation. The divine trinity and the divine 
mercy burst forth in their glory by reason of 
the plan of salvation, while the power, wis¬ 
dom, and goodness of God appear in a new 
light. u The angels desire to look into these 
things,” showing that “ the riches of grace in 
Christ Jesus” are to them fuil of interest, and 
demanding the most careful study. The fact 
also that the God-man is the centre of heaven 
is a truth of wondrous significance. Man does 


296 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


seem to be lifted up to the highest plane of 
existence because of his connection with the 
God -man. 

The saints in glory have characteristics 
which the angels do not possess. Their expe¬ 
rience which has been gained from sin, trial, 
temptation, truth, and the working of the 
Holy Spirit, is a great experience. They have 
a new kind of humility and faith, a new kind 
of love and thankfulness, a new kind of praise 
and hope; and as growing out of these, a new 
kind of obedience. They have views, feel¬ 
ings, and actions with reference to God and 
the God-man that the angels cannot have. 
The redemptive life in souls has a quality that 
.is superior to the natural life of the angels. 
As the Saviour struck out a course of benevo¬ 
lence that was the highest in the system of 
God, so the actions of perfected men have a 
might and majesty because they are the result 
of that benevolence. The saints may there¬ 
fore be higher than the angels. Redeemed 
humanity is elevated at every point. Even if 
we admit that the saints will be lower for a 
time, yet in the course of ages they may be 
higher. The eternal exaltation of redeemed 
men is closely connected with the eternal ex¬ 
altation of the Redeemer, and as a consequence 
they must have a greatness which does not 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH NOBLE COMPANIONS. 297 

belong to the angels. The glory of the saved 
is the glory of the Saviour. 

There is a bond of union between Christ and 
all ransomed souls that does not exist between 
Christ and the angels. He is “ the head over 
all things to the Clmrcli , which is his body, the 
fulness of him that filleth all in all.” We are 
spoken of as joint heirs with Christ, intimating 
that the redeemed and the Redeemer have 
one common inheritance. “Christ’s faithful 
servants,” remarks Dr. Payson, “ shall sit and 
reign with him upon his throne,—an honor in 
which it is nowhere intimated that any of the 
angels shall share. Indeed, the disciples of 
Christ are in a peculiar sense his members, 
and as such they will largely share in all the 
honors, and dignities, and glories, of their ex¬ 
alted head. It is doubtless in virtue of this 
free, intimate, and peculiar relation to him, 
that they will, as an apostle assures us, judge 
the world, and even judge angels.” We have 
the surprising language: “All are yours; and 
ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” The 
exalted unity of the saved and the Saviour is 
amazing, and seems as if it could not be true; 
and yet he says, “ The glory which thou gavest 
me, I have given them; that they all may be one , 
even as ive are one .” While it is true that we 
have no right to lessen the standing of the 


298 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


angels, it is equally true that we have no right 
to lessen the standing of redeemed men. If 
we lower the position of saints, we cast dis¬ 
honor upon the Saviour. “Angels are the Im¬ 
perial Guard, doing easy duty at home. We 
are the Tenth Legion, marching in from the 
swamps and forests of the far-off frontier; 
scarred and battered, but victorious over death 
and sin.” # If the choice were given to me, I 
had rather be a man redeemed by the precious 
blood of Christ, than an angel who needed no 
redemption. 

* Hitchcock, “Eternal Atonement,” p. 13. 


CHAPTER VI. 


THE SAVED ARE BLESSED WITH PURE JOY. 

Joy springs from the perfect activity of the 
mind. “ The feeling of life freely progressing 
is happiness; true blessedness is godliness in 
love to God.” Although the joy of saints is 
of great compass, it must always be propor¬ 
tioned to the state and circumstances of the 
soul; for if it is heightened to excess the tend¬ 
ency will be to seek for it as a chief good. 
Happiness even when purest is secondary. It 
has not the same value as knowledge and 
goodness. Its smile makes work to be easier, 
but it has not the masculine quality of dili¬ 
gence. We may concentrate all the energies 
of the soul in order to gain the greatest amount 
of holiness, but we dare not do that in order 
to gain the greatest amount of happiness. 
There never can be too much of love, but there 
may be too much of pleasure. God might 
create a nature that would be satisfied with a 
small degree of happiness, but it is not so cer¬ 
tain that he could create a nature that would 


300 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


be satisfied with less holiness than that nature 
could contain. Delightful emotion is a sover¬ 
eign gift, and it might be modified as infinite 
wisdom saw fit, but righteousness has the 
stamp of eternity and cannot be changed. 

I. JOY FROM THE ABSENCE OF PAIN. 

Pain and sin are foreign to human nature 
as God created it. Sin, however, is worse 
than pain, because sin is called into being by 
a voluntary act, but pain is never chosen for 
its own sake. Pleasure is normal, but pain is 
abnormal. To contrast the miseries of time 
with the blessedness of eternity is to intensify 
that blessedness. The retrospective action of 
the saintly mind will be a characteristic of 
that mind forever, because by it there will 
always be suitable feelings welling forth 
towards the Infinite Deliverer. Saints tor¬ 
tured in the flames will have an ecstasy of joy 
as they enter among the glorified. Even the 
cross on which the God-man hung will be 
brought out into infinite prominence, as it 
stands in contrast with the countless multi¬ 
tudes saved by the one atoning death. 

Whether the annihilation of sin or the an¬ 
nihilation of misery was the first that appeared 
in consciousness as the soul entered the eternal 
state, we do not know. Perhaps there was no 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH PURE JOY. 301 

perceptible distinction of time between them; 
simply the realization of well-being in its com¬ 
pleteness. However this may be, the fact 
that a once sinful man is now saved has vastly 
more in it than we are accustomed to attach 
to that word in common life. Every true 
believer upon earth can be spoken of as saved, 
yet that is not the same as the absolute salva¬ 
tion of heaven. In the one case, redemption 
is at work in the soul, and during a single day 
there may be relapses and repen tings; but in 
the other case, the work is finished and re¬ 
demption is needed no more. 

n. JOY FROM THE SIMPLE ONGOING OF LIFE. 

Just to exist is delightful. The soul is an 
organism, and that organism working in its 
own perfect way is happiness. If you will 
think of your body when in excellent health— 
food relished, sleep refreshing, and the feeling 
that you are lightsome and well—you will see 
that there is great pleasure in that state of 
things, and if your body were to express itself, 
it would say it was happy. The most element¬ 
ary enjoyment is that which springs from the 
motion of life. The whole man, body and 
mind, is flourishing in the midst of gladness 
like the flowers and trees of heaven. There 
is a new sense of ability as if one could fly 


302 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


with ease, and could execute plans with readi¬ 
ness. This consciousness of power thrills the 
soul, and lays a foundation for happiness. 
Love fills the entire being, and appears as a 
general feeling of good-will, prepared to go 
wherever God directs. Thankfulness exists 
as a state of mind, flowing round and round 
the purified spirit, eager to find an opening 
towards some person who had befriended the 
soul. “ Gratitude is the memory of the heart.” 
There is such a thing as having a grateful 
feeling without being conscious each moment 
of the one to whom gratitude is to be ex¬ 
pressed. The emotions seem like waves of a 
heavenly ocean, rolling in gladness towards 
the shores of life and peace. All the graces 
come forth in princely array, as if the sinless 
spirit were a palace of glory. The intellect 
has light, the conscience law, the imagination 
ideals, the reason principles. There is a noble 
sense of freedom, the will completely willing, 
and joy coursing through it because of its 
obedience. The entire mind is a holy tend¬ 
ency, a habit of righteousness, stronger and 
better than simple innocence. The heavenly 
nature is theistic; the Deity abides in it as in 
a temple. Such a soul is “the river of God, 
which is full of water.” According to the 
amount of power in the mind and the length 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH PURE JOY. 303 


of time that power can be exerted, so is the 
happiness of that mind. 

HI. JOY FROM A STATE OF HARMONY. 

Confusion never pleases. A single break in 
the harmony disturbs the mind, and will dis¬ 
turb it all the more if the harmony was the 
highest up to the point when the disharmony 
appeared. A cathedral complete with the 
exception of a flaw in the centre, will produce 
in a spectator mingled feelings of pleasure and 
pain, and the pain will be all the greater just 
because the flaw broke the harmony of splen¬ 
did workmanship. If a painting is composed 
of a hundred figures, and the one that was 
intended to be the chief figure is not distin¬ 
guished as such, the painting lacks unity, and 
so does not satisfy. Pain is the sign of dis¬ 
union. The creation with its millions and 
millions of different things pleases the creat- 
urely spirit, just because that creation is a 
system. If calculations could not be made in 
it with certainty, a feeling of dissatisfaction 
would be the result. “ There is not any mat¬ 
ter, nor any spirit, nor any creature, but is 
capable of unity of some kind with other 
creatures, and in that unity is its perfection 
and theirs, and a pleasure also for the behold¬ 
ing of all other creatures that can behold. So 


304 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


the unity of spirits is partly in their sympathy, 
and partly in their giving and taking, and al¬ 
ways in their love.” * The mere thought of the 
celestial commonwealth with its works and 
ways in harmony, kindles joy in the soul. An 
object which calls forth all the faculties is one 
in which the mind can rest. When we have 
totality with unity we have the sweetest re¬ 
pose. As the blue sky with the white light 
all through it and the soft air underneath it is 
calm and serene, so the spirit of man abides 
in peace when in the midst of divine harmo¬ 
nies. Heaven is the highest order; and so the 
perfected soul is satisfied with the place and 
the circumstances, satisfied with the times 
and the seasons, satisfied with angels and men, 
satisfied with God and his government. 

IV. JOY FROM THE NEW AND THE TRUE. 

The Biblical revelations of the future life 
tell us of “ a new heaven and a new earth,” 
the “ new Jerusalem ” and the “ new song.” 
The new must be true in order to please, al¬ 
though the true may be old and yet satisfy. 
The radiance of eternity spreads over the 
true, and in a sense it is both new and old. 
The new attracts the mind by its freshness, 
stimulates the faculties, having about it a 

* “Beauties” of Ruskin, p. 11. 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH PURE JOY. 305 


pleasing warmth. Novelty and enjoyment 
are near of kin. Curiosity is a craving after 
the new, and so the new meets the want. As 
knowledge conditions man’s development, it 
is suitable that there should be a desire for it. 
Wanting the new and the true will have a 
soundness and keenness in the pure spirits of 
heaven that cannot be found upon earth. No 
one will be wearied with eternal sameness. 
An infinite variety will mark the steps of the 
soul in its endless march, and this variety will 
not only characterize the realm of truth, but 
also the realm of emotion and action. New 
mental and material provinces will appear 
which at present we have no conception of, 
and new empires of life for which we have no 
name. We may rightly suppose also that the 
old will in many cases become new by reason 
of certain relations which demand it, as if the 
new were hidden in the old and must come 
forth when the occasion calls for it. It is 
even possible that things which skirted our 
daily life here and which we played with as of 
secondary importance, may start up on the 
fields of immortality in well-defined form, 
needed for some high mission. Articles at 
one time are thrown away as useless, which 
in after years are found to meet an emergency. 
There may be dreams of the soul that will be- 


306 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


come real in the world of truth. Thus our 
infancy and manhood may meet together dur¬ 
ing some hour of the eternal day. The seed 
that was planted here may he found springing 
up in fruitfulness a million of years from this 
time. 

Y. JOY WHEN AN OBJECT SUGGESTS A TRAIN OF 
FINE THOUGHTS. 

A single truth may of itself he a source of 
pleasure. The truth may he comprehensive 
and intricate, and may take hours and days 
to see through it; yet when once it is mastered, 
it stirs the soul to its lowest depths and creates 
a feeling of intense joy. I fully believe that 
there are single truths which will do vastly 
more for us in the line of development and 
happiness, than the multiplication of a certain 
class of ideas. Indeed, an array of facts may 
at times dampen and chill the mind. That 
was sound advice which Johnson gave to Bos¬ 
well when he said, “ Consolidate in your mind 
a firm and regular system of law, instead of 
picking up occasional fragments.” * Hundreds 
of truths may he lodged in one principle. 
When the laws of association start a train of 
thoughts and make them circulate about the 
one topic which the intellect is considering, it 

* “Life” of Johnson, vol. i., p. 302. New York ed, 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH PURE JOY. 307 


seems like a fellowship meeting of friends; 
and the happiness awakened is in proportion 
to their number and value. Treasures hidden 
for years now come forth and surprise the 
mind. The soul seems to be larger and to 
contain more life by reason of the magnetic 
current of association. This suggestive power 
must have a great deal to do with the blessed¬ 
ness of the saints. It will be one of the 
quickening forces of eternity, and will tend to 
keep up that brightness and elasticity of spirit 
which have so much to do with its happiness. 
When we think of the experiences of heaven 
for a century or a thousand years, we can see 
what a gain it will be to have these recalled 
and made to mingle with some great thought 
that the mind is occupied with. We cannot 
perceive the full force of the point before us 
by looking at the working of association in 
the present life. In the glorified state this 
suggestive energy will be so perfect and have 
such a perfection of materials with which to 
work, that the felicity flowing from it will be 
exceedingly great and fine in its quality. 

VI. JOY FROM HEAVEN VIEWED AS A GIFT. 

No soul can take credit to itself that heaven 
is reached. The entire praise will be given to 
Eternal G-oodness. That there is real worth 


308 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


appertaining to those who have been saved by 
Christ is admitted. Holiness has an intrinsic 
value of its own. To whatever extent the ex¬ 
cellencies of glorified saints will come forth 
during the ages of eternity they must have 
worth; yet inasmuch as this worth is the re¬ 
sult of divine grace, it is relative in its nature. 
No one will ever lose sight of the fact that 
heaven is a gift. Heartfelt praise will ascend 
forever because of it. 

Although all the redeemed are in heaven, 
the rewards differ as souls and actions differ. 
The penitent thief and the martyr Stephen 
cannot have the same volume of happiness. 
The missionary who toiled for a lifetime and 
the convert who died just after conversion, 
cannot be alike in their blessedness. Each 
vessel will be filled with joy, but each will 
differ in size. Then, too, the body has delight¬ 
ful sensations as well as the soul. It was man 
in his double nature that did good, and it is 
man in his double nature that receives a bless¬ 
ing. Equally also will pain strike through 
the body and soul of the wicked. Although 
celestial rewards are of grace, and not of debt, 
they are never bestowed in a way that is un¬ 
reasonable. Our reward will not only be in 
proportion to what we do, but also in propor¬ 
tion to our state of mind as wanting to do more 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH PURE JOY. 309 


or less in given circumstances. Our whole 
being and environment are taken into the 
account when Grod blesses us. There seems to 
be great wealth about the rewards of eternity, 
as if only in that way they could express the 
unsearchable riches of Christ. The rule is, 
many blessings for a few deeds of love—as if 
ten were rewarded by a hundred and a hun¬ 
dred by a thousand. Grod is pleased to heap 
great honors on ransomed men. Joy of the 
most exultant kind must find expression in 
view of the heavenly gift. “ Unto him that 
loved us, and washed us from our sins in his 
blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
unto Grod and his Father: to him be glory and 
dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” 

Vn. JOY FROM WORSHIP RENDERED TO THE 
TRIUNE GOD. 

As worship is the noblest act of the soul, 
the blessedness which springs from it must be 
the richest. All the tendencies, states, and 
aspirations of the saintly mind gather them¬ 
selves together and form the crowning act of 
worship. This is the one act that is absolute; 
not a means to an end; worship is the end; 
the soul stops with that. We praise and adore 
Grod because he is worthy of praise and adora¬ 
tion. If we were to do these things because 


310 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


of some good that would result from them , we 
should fail of rendering pure worship. Good 
will come to us from the act of worship, but 
we are not seeking for that: we simply are 
lost in the homage we pay to the Father who 
loved us, the Son who died for us, and the 
Spirit who sanctified us. As we began the 
Third Part with the blessed vision of the tri¬ 
une God, we end it with the blessed worship 
rendered to the triune God. Beholding the 
saintly and angelic tribes pavilioned in the 
midst of the glory of God and reflecting the 
light of his countenance, what a glow of feel¬ 
ing must thrill their hearts as their praises 
reach his ear! And if in the high devotions 
of the upper sanctuary there mingles the ele¬ 
ment of music, the raptures of emotion must 
be exceedingly great as the loud hallelujahs 
ring through the heavenly temple. There is 
no telling the joy that will fill the minds of 
those celestial worshippers as they praise the 
King of kings and Lord of lords. We only 
know that it will be the perfection of blessed¬ 
ness. We reach the end that is endless when 
we reach God. There being nothing beyond, 
we find ourselves at home, peaceful, contented, 
and very happy. “ This satisfaction is noth¬ 
ing else but the repose of the soul amidst in¬ 
finite delights; its peaceful acquiescence, hav- 


THE SAVED BLESSED WITH PURE JOY. 311 

ing attained the ultimate term of all its 
motions, beyond which it cares to go no fur¬ 
ther ; the solace it finds in an adequate, full 
good; which it accounts enough for it, beyond 
which it desires no more; reckons its state as 
good as it can be, and is void of all hovering 
thoughts or inclination to change.” Beaching 
this ideal state, the soul can say most heartily, 
“In thy presence is fulness of joy: at thy 
right hand are pleasures for evermore.” 

Thou immortal spirit, go on thy way to that 
realm of delights. Thou art not well here. 
Both the light and the darkness are about 
thee. Thou findest no hour like the hours of 
the angels. Thou seemest to be a stranger 
among men, and dreamest of a fair country 
that is far away, hoping to reach it when the 
day appears. With what freedom shalt thou 
spread thy wings when thou findest thyself in 
the land of peace! No weight shall then hold 
thee down, neither shall any plague infect thy 
spirit in all its path. Thou shalt be in the 
midst of life that is nothing but life, and glad¬ 
ness shall cheer thee through all the years. 
With the great chieftains of light thou shalt 
abide; thy former weariness forgotten amid 
the glories of the Lord. Beside the banks of 
peacefulness thou shalt walk, and in the bow¬ 
ers of love thou shall sit down; thy medita- 


312 


GREAT THOUGHTS OF THE BIBLE. 


tions shall be sweet, and no evil shall come 
near thee in all thy thoughts. Thy home 
shall be the one home of the good, and the joy 
of the Lord shall be thy strength for ever¬ 
more. 


INDEX. 


Adam surprised by the first approach of night, 221. 

^Esthetic culture valuable, but cannot destroy sin, 139. 

Angels, ministry of, 290. 

Aristotle, 63, 222. 

Atonement, 125. 

Beauty, in the object; reason gives the idea of it; the beauti¬ 
ful is always an excellency; it attracts; feeling awakened 
by it is pleasant; the tendency is to rest in it, 76; beauty 
of the Saviour’s character, from its form, 77; from its 
simplicity, 79; harmony, 80; manifoldness ending in 
unity, 82; repose, 84; beauty of the Supreme Being, 227. 

Benefits, a class of, that have come to us from the redemptive 
system, 163. 

Biblical theology, practical, 132. 

Buddhism, ten commandments of, 184. 

Budgett, Samuel, 189. 

Butler, William Archer, 77. 

Chalmers, Dr. Thomas, 192, 233, 253. 

Character, sinless, is the perfection of order, 244; perfection 
of life, 246; perfection of loveliness, 247; perfection of 
security, 249; perfection of heaven, 251. 

Charnock, Stephen, 226. 

Christ could harmonize the apparent contradictions of the 
divine government, 23. 



314 


INDEX. 


Dana, Prof. James D., 278. 

Deeds, extraordinary, performed by saints in heaven, 271. 
Dick, Dr. Thomas, 222. 

Derner, Dr. J. A., 234. 

Duff, Dr. Alexander, 99, 269. 

Education valuable, but cannot make a wicked man holy, 135. 
Edwards, President, 157, 262. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 20. 

English language to be the chief language of the future, 165. 

Eairbairn, Patrick, 214. 

Eaith, a constituent of the true religion, 153. 

Farrar, Dr. Frederick W., 66. 

Fatherhood of God, 122. 

F6nelon, Archbishop, 35. 

Free government valuable, but it cannot make a bad man 
good, 142. 

Gambling, evils of, 176. 

God, the great thought in the Old Testament, 106; the great 
thought in the New Testament, 120. 

God is heaven, 224. 

God-man, the, has a universal significance, 231; is the end as 
well as the medium of divine manifestation, 233. 

Golden rule, 193; was known in its negative form by Jews, 
Greeks, and Chinese, 194. 

Graham, Isabella, 154. 

Great principles, 180-196. 

Greg, W. R., 72. 

Guyon, Madame, 242. 

Hall, Robert, 82. 

Heaven, the central universe, 222; the land of open vision, 256. 
Heavenly corporeity, 263. 

Henry the Eighth, 175. 

Herder, J. G., 114. 

History, universal, a study in heaven, 279. 


INDEX. 


315 


Hitchcock, Dr. Edward, 265. 

Hitchcock, Dr. Roswell D., 298. 

Howe, John, 248. 

Humility of Christ not like ours, 27. 

Hymnology of the Bible, 114; languages enriched by it, 116. 

Hymns, Vedic, 111, 225. 

Imagination, Christ in the, 90; realism of the Gospels the 
result of a Christly imagination, 91; imagination, power 
of the, in the heavenly state, 259. 

Immortality revealed in the Old Testament, 110. 

Incarnation of the Son of God not merely a means with refer¬ 
ence to redemption, 231. 

Indignation of God, 167; of the prophets, 168; of the impreca¬ 
tory psalms, 169; of Christ, 170; that which hinders the 
working of indignation, 171; persons against whom it 
should be directed, 173; no true reform without it, 178. 

Individuality of Christ has its chief meaning because he is a 
divine-human Saviour, 20. 

Infants in heaven, 285. 

Infinite, sentiment of, 209. 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 61, 306. 

Joy, of the redeemed, from the absence of pain, 300; from the 
ongoing of life, 301; from harmony, 303; from the new 
and the true, 304; from an object which suggests fine 
thoughts, 306; from worship rendered to the triune God, 
309. 

Koran, what it says about paradise, 244. 

Language, the new, of heaven, 257. 

Law, moral, centres in God, 183; has no power to make a 
sinful man holy, 145. 

Liddon, Canon, 25. 

Logos, the, no change in, by the assumption of human nature, 
49. 

Love of God, 120; love of the Christian, 154; supreme love 
simply has the ascendency, but does not fill the soul, 249. 


316 


INDEX. 


Macintosh, Sir James, 175. 

Martensen, Dr. H., 237, 294. 

Melvill, Henry, 294. 

Memory, increased power of, in heaven, 259. 

Miracles of Christ viewed as allegories of salvation, 93. 
Monotheism, the first faith of the race, 105. 

Mysticism, a phase of, in the working of the soul, 217. 

Neander, Dr. Augustus, G3. 

Need, the feeling of, 151. 

Newman, Cardinal, 199, 218. 

Obedience, heartfelt, a constituent of the true religion, 156. 
Order in the Pentateuch, 103. 

Owen, Dr. John, 236. 

Pain, mental, of Christ, not the same as our unhappiness, 29. 
Parker, Theodore, 72. 

Pascal, Blaise, 80. 

Past, the, did not form Christ, 25. 

Pathetic element in Christ, 31. 

Payson, Dr. Edward, 249, 297. 

Perfection of the Saviour, 61-74. 

Perfect man of the Stoics, 62. 

Permanent to be preferred, 99. 

Plan of Christ was never changed, 25. 

Plato on eternal beauty, 76. 

Prayers of Christ different from ours in several respects, 28. 
Progress, endless, in heaven, 268-281. 

Providence, universal, a study in heaven, 279. 

Recognition of friends in heaven, 284. 

Redemption, a great thought of the Old Testament, 111. 
Reinhard, F. V., 27. 

Repentance, a constituent element of the true religion, 151. 
Repulse, seen at times in Christ, in providence, business, 
education, religion, 38. 

Reserved power of Christ, 30. 


INDEX. 


317 


Responsibility, redemptive, of Christ, 55. 

Resurrection of Christ a fundamental fact, 129. 

Righteous, passage of the, from earth to heaven, 219. 

Rites of the Church few and simple, 42. 

Robertson, Federick W., 202. 

Ruskin, John, 140, 304. 

Sale, George, 244. 

Salvation, 125. 

Schwegler, Dr. Albert, 222. 

Shairp, Dr. John C., 139. 

Shedd, Dr. Wm. G. T., 168. 

Smeaton, Prof. George, 126. 

Smith, Dr. Henry B., 170, 209. 

Solitude of the Saviour, 48-60. 

Son of God became incarnate, and not the Father or the Spirit, 
49; Son of God central in the divine system, 229. 

Soul, the, has movements which point to heaven, 217; soul 
has movements which point to God, 224; soul quickened 
the instant it enters heaven, 254; do souls in heaven 
return to the earth ? 287; do souls in heaven know what is 
transpiring on the earth? 289; are redeemed souls greater 
than angels? 293. 

Stewart, T., 277. 

Surprises of the Saviour, 33-47. 

Tait, P. G., 277. 

Taylor, Isaac, 239. 

Trinity, doctrine of the, 118; may furnish the plan for the 
theology of heaven, 238. 

Ullman, Dr. Carl, 68. 

Unbounded aspirations, 94. 

Universe, the material, will be destroyed, 277; a new universe 
will be formed out of the former one, 278. 

Universes, invisible, 275. 

Unrest of the soul points to its greatness, 207. 

Upham, Prof. Thomas C., 242. 


318 


INDEX. 


Vanity of mere human endeavor, 98. 

Vaughan, Robert A., 274. 

Vision of the triune God, in the unity of his being, 225; through 
the medium of the God-man, 229; by the power of the 
Holy Spirit, 234. 


Whately, Archbishop, 43. 


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